India's industrial growth slows to (-)0.8% in April

New Delhi: Pulled down by the poor show by manufacturing and capital goods sectors, the industrial production shrank by 0.8 percent in April in its first decline in three months.

Factory output measured in terms of the Index of Industrial Production (IIP) had expanded by 3 per cent in April last year, the data released by Central Statistics Office (CSO) today showed.

Disappointing data may add to the clamour for rate cut by the Reserve Bank of India.

The IIP had registered a growth of about 2 per cent in February this year. The provisional estimates of 0.1 per cent growth in March this year was revised slightly upwards to 0.3 per cent. The IIP declined by 1.6 per cent this January.

Manufacturing sector which constitutes over 75 per cent of the index, contracted by 3.1 per cent in April this year compared to a growth of 3.9 per cent in same month last year.

Similarly the capital goods output, which is a barometer of investment, declined sharply by 24.9 per cent in April compared to a growth of 5.5 per cent during the same month last year.

Showing lower demand, overall consumer goods output dipped by 1.2 per cent in month under review as against a growth of 2.8 per cent year ago.

The consumer non-durable segment showed decline in output by 9.7 per cent compared to a growth of 3.7 per cent year ago.

However, the consumer durable sector showed an uptrend by recording a growth of 11.8 per cent, up from 1.3 per cent a year ago.

On the positive side, power generation recorded a growth of 14.6 per cent as against a marginally decline of 0.5 per cent a year ago.

Mining sector, showed some improvement recording a growth of 1.4 per cent as against a contraction of 0.6 per cent a year ago.

Overall, 9 of the 22 industry groups in manufacturing sector showed negative growth in April 2016 as compared to year ago period.