Govt holds back full industrial output data in May for 2nd straight month

The government has held back the release of complete industrial production data for the second straight month in May in view of the impact of the coronavirus-induced lockdown.

The Ministry of Statistics and Programme Implementation on Friday released quick estimates of the Index of Industrial Production (IIP) which showed the index value at 88.4 in May against 53.6 in April, indicating a graded pickup in industrial activity. The index stood at 135.4 in May 2019. The ministry did not provide any comparable percentage data while noting that it is not appropriate to compare the IIP data with earlier months due to Covid-19 lockdown.

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The IIP data comes with a lag of six weeks.

"In view of preventive measures and announcement of nation-wide lockdown by the government to contain spread of Covid-19 pandemic, majority of the industrial sector establishments were not operating from the end of March, 2020 onwards. This has had an impact on the items being produced by the establishments during the period of lockdown and the subsequent periods of conditional relaxations in restrictions," the ministry said ina release.

The IIP for the month of May 2020 stands at 88.4 against 53.6 for April 2020. The factory output index was at 135.4 in May 2019, which indicates a contraction of 34.71 per cent in industrial activity in May 2020.

Last year, the IIP had recorded a growth of 4.5 per cent.

The ministry said, "As mentioned in the Press Release for the IIP for April, 2020, it may not be appropriate to compare the IIP for May 2020 with those of months preceding the COVID 2019 pandemic."

The number of units responding has improved in May 2020 as compared to the earlier months of lockdown. The weighted response rate at time of QE of April 2020 was 87 percent which is now revised upwards to 91 percent at first revision.

As per the data, the indices of industrial production for mining, manufacturing and electricity sectors for May 2020 stood at 87.0, 82.4 and 149.6 respectively.

As per Use-based classification, the indices stood at 105.5 for Primary Goods, 37.1 for Capital Goods, 77.6 for Intermediate Goods and 84.1 for Infrastructure/ Construction Goods for May 2020.

Further, the indices for consumer durables and consumer non-durables stood at 42.2 and 132.3 respectively for May 2020.