New Delhi: Industrial production registered a growth of 6.3 per cent in April as per the new series that was released on Friday with a base year of 2004-05, but the slowdown of the economy was clear as factory output nosedived to just 4.4 per cent as per the old series.
The poor performance of the manufacturing and mining sectors pulled down the overall growth of industry as per the old series with a base year of 1993-94 from 16.6 per cent in April last year.
Meanwhile, factory output in March was revised upward to 7.8 per cent from the provisional estimate of 7.3 per cent released last month.
As per the old series, growth in manufacturing, which constitutes about 80 per cent of the index weight, nosedived to 4.4 per cent in April from a high of 18 per cent in the same month last year.
Mining also grew by a meagre 2.1 per cent during the month under review as against 12 per cent in April, 2010. Growth in electricity production also dipped to 6.4 per cent in the month under review from 6.9 per cent in the same period of the previous year.
Another area of concern was the low offtake of capital goods, whose production growth was just 2.5 per cent in April, 2011, compared to 64.1 per cent in April last year.
Overall, consumer goods also saw the growth rate slow to 5.9 per cent in April from 11.9 per cent in the same month last year, as per old series.
Meanwhile, as per the new series, manufacturing growth in April stood at 6.9 per cent, while mining and electricity production was up 2.2 per cent and 6.4 per cent, respectively. Capital goods registered a growth of 14.5 per cent and overall consumer goods were up by 2.9 per cent in April as per the series with a base year of 2004-05.
Production trends for 100 new items, including ice cream, fruit juice and mobile phones, has been included for measuring the pace of industrial production in the new index series, which was recently approved by the government.
The new items in the IIP would also include computer stationary, newspapers, chemicals like ammonia, ammonia sulphate, electrical products like solder power systems, gems and jewellery and molasses.
On the other hand, obsolete articles like typewriters, loud speakers and VCRs have been taken off to make the series representative of the present-day industrial production and demand scenario.
The base year for the new series is 2004 05 as against 1993 94 for the old one.
The new IIP series is expected to help policymakers and market participants forecast economic trends.
The Department of Industrial Promotion and Policy (DIPP) and Central Statistical Organisation (CSO) jointly worked on the new index.
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