India's industrial growth falls to 1.7% in May; inflation at record low of 1.54%

New Delhi: Industrial output growth dropped to 1.7 percent in May from 8 percent in the same month last year. On the other hand, retail inflation hit new low of 1.54 percent in June, down from 2.18 per cent in May.

The factory output growth, measured on the Index of Industrial Production (IIP), for April-May period decelerated to 2.3 per cent from 7.3 per cent in the same period last fiscal, as per the data released by the Central Statistics Office.

The data further revealed that output of the capital goods segment, considered as key indicator of investment, shrunk by 3.9 per cent compared to a high growth of 13.9 per cent recorded in May 2016.

The consumer durables segment too witnessed a decline.

While mining sector output declined by 0.9 per cent in May against 5.7 per cent growth in the year-ago month, the growth of manufacturing sector slowed to 1.2 per cent from 8.6 per cent in the same month last year.

However, electricity generation expanded by 8.7 per cent in May as against 6.1 per cent growth in the corresponding period last year.

The Reserve Bank, which is slated to announce its bi-monthly monetary policy later next month, has kept the interest rate on hold citing risks to inflation.

The government has been pressing on the RBI for a cut in interest rates to increase private investment. Industry too has been persistently demanding rate cut to boost investments.The cumulative IIP growth for the period April-May 2017 over the corresponding period of the previous year stood at 2.3 percent.

India`s core consumer price inflation, which excludes food and energy prices, eased to around 3.9 percent to 4 percent from around 4.2 percent in May, according to estimates from three analysts on Wednesday.

Estimates provided ranged from 3.85 percent to 4.0 percent.

Data released earlier showed India`s headline annual consumer price inflation eased to a lower-than-expected 1.54 percent in June, the lowest since the new index was adopted in 2012, from 2.18 percent in May.