India's factory output growth slows down to 7.1 percent in December

The Indian government said in a statement: " The General Index for the month of December 2017 stands at 130.3, which is 7.1 percent higher as compared to the level in the month of December 2016."

"The cumulative growth for the period April-December 2017 over the corresponding period of the previous year stands at 3.7 percent," it said.

The Indices of Industrial Production for the Mining, Manufacturing and Electricity sectors for the month of December 2017 stand at 115.5, 131.6 and 143.9 respectively, with the corresponding growth rates of 1.2 percent, 8.4 percent and 4.4 percent as compared to December 2016.

The cumulative growth in these three sectors during April-December 2017 over the corresponding period of 2016 has been 2.8 percent, 3.8 percent and 5.1 percent respectively.

In terms of industries, sixteen out of the twenty three industry groups (asper 2-digit NIC-2008) in the manufacturing sector have shown positive growth during the month of December 2017 as compared to the corresponding month of the previous year.

The industry group ‘Manufacture of other transport equipment’ has shown the highest positive growth of 38.3 percent followed by 33.6 percent in ‘Manufacture of pharmaceuticals, medicinal chemical and botanical products’ and 29.8 percent in ‘Manufacture of computer, electronic and optical products’.

On the other hand, the industry group ‘Manufacture of tobacco products’ has shown the highest negative growth of (-) 28.2 percent followed by (-) 22.3 percent in ‘Other manufacturing’ and (-) 14.9 percent in ‘Manufacture of electrical equipment’.

As per Use-based classification, the growth rates in December 2017 over December 2016 are 3.7 percent in Primary goods, 16.4 percent in Capital goods, 6.2 percent in Intermediate goods and 6.7 percent in Infrastructure/ Construction Goods (Statement III). The Consumer durables and Consumer non-durables have recorded growth of 0.9 percent and 16.5 percent respectively.