The Hindu Business Line : Industrial growth hits fiscal year low of 1.6% in Dec

THE country's industrial output has registered its lowest growth rate for the current fiscal, at 1.6 per cent during December. This is as against a growth of 3.6 per cent recorded during the same month of 2000-01.

According to the latest `quick estimates' of the Index of Industrial Production (IIP) released by the Central Statistical Organisation (CSO) here on Tuesday, the growth rates during December 2001 have been lower for all the three major sectors comprising the overall general index - at 1.4 per cent for `manufacturing', 0.5 per cent for `mining' and 3.8 per cent for `electricity'. The corresponding growth rates for December 2000 stood at 3.5 per cent, four per cent and 4.2 per cent, respectively.

Even for the period April-December 2001, the cumulative growth rates, at 2.3 per cent for the `general' index and 2.4 per cent, 1.1 per cent and 2.7 per cent for the indices of manufacturing, mining and electricity, respectively have been lower in relation to the corresponding nine month period levels of 5.8 per cent, six per cent, 4.4 per cent and 4.8 per cent, respectively.

The use-based classification of the IIP reveals that it is only the consumer durables segment that has so far weathered the present manufacturing slowdown. During April-December 2001, consumer durables production rose by 12.5 per cent, over and above the 17.8 per cent growth registered for April-December 2000. Moreover, this buoyancy has been sustained even during December 2001, with the segment growing by 8.5 per cent, compared to 7.9 per cent in December 2000.

But on the other hand, capital goods output - which is an indicator of the level of investment in plant and machinery being undertaken by companies - has plummeted by 4.8 per cent during the first nine months of the current fiscal (as against a growth of three per cent during April-December 2000).

The growth rates during April-December 2001 have similarly been lower for basic goods (2.2 per cent versus 5.1 per cent during April-December 2000), intermediate goods (two per cent versus 4.8 per cent) and consumer non-durables (2.3 per cent versus 5.3 per cent).

For the latest recorded month of December 2001, the growth rates stood at minus 4.1 per cent for capital goods (compared to 2.2 per cent in December 2000), two per cent (3.5 per cent) for basic goods, 1.1 per cent (3.8 per cent) for intermediate goods and 1.5 per cent (2.8 per cent) for consumer non-durables.

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