New Delhi: Industrial production grew 2.6 per cent in January mainly on account of improvement in manufacturing activity and better offtake of capital goods. The growth in factory output, as measured by the Index of Industrial Production (IIP), was 1.1 per cent in January 2014.
For the April-January period of 2014-15, IIP grew 2.5 per cent as against a meagre rise of 0.1 per cent in same period of the last fiscal as per the data released by Central Statistics Office (CSO) today. Meanwhile, the December IIP has been revised upwards to 3.23 per cent from the provisional estimates of 1.7 per cent released last month.
As per government data released today, manufacturing output, which constitutes over 75 per cent to the index, grew by 3.3 per cent in January compared to a meagre growth of 0.3 per cent in the same month a year ago.
For April-January period, the sector saw an output growth of 1.7 per cent, compared to a contraction of 0.3 per cent in the year-ago period. The production of capital goods, a barometer of demand, grew by 12.8 per cent in January as against a contraction of 3.9 per cent in same month of last year. During the April-January period, capital goods output grew by 5.7 per cent as against a dip of 0.8 per cent. Fourteen out of the 22 industry groups in the manufacturing sector have shown positive growth during the month of January year-on-year.
