IIP records 5-month low growth of 4.4%

Industrial output grew by 4.4% in March, the slowest in five months, due to a fall in capital goods production and deceleration in mining activity, according to the official data.

Industrial growth measured by the Index of Industrial Production (IIP) in 2017-18 too decelerated to 4.3% from 4.6% in the previous fiscal.

The IIP grew by 4.4% in March 2017, the same as in March this year, the data released by the Central Statistics Office (CSO) showed on Friday.

The previous low at 1.8% was recorded in October 2017.

The manufacturing sector, which constitutes over 77% of the index, grew at 4.4% in March compared with 3.3% in the same month a year ago.

The output of mining sector decelerated to 2.8% during the month as compared to 10.1% in March 2017.

Similarly, power generation too slowed down to 5.9% against 6.2% in March 2017. Capital goods output, however, declined by 1.8% during March compared with a growth of 9.4% in the corresponding period last year.

Consumer durables output, on the other hand, showed an increase of 2.9% against a decline of 0.6% in March 2017.

The consumer non-durables segment showed an impressive growth of 10.9% in March against 7.5% in the corresponding month last year.

During 2017-18, the manufacturing sector recorded a growth of 4.5%, marginally up from 4.4% in 2016-17.

The mining sector, as well as power generation, reported deceleration to 2.3% and 4.6% from 5.3% and 5.4%, respectively in 2016-17.