India's factory output moves up 1.2 per cent in May

The General Index for the month of May 2016 stands at 181.8, which is 1.2 percent higher as compared to the level in the month of May 2015. The cumulative growth for the period April-May 2016 over the corresponding period of the previous year stands at (-) 0.1 percent, read a government statement.

The Indices of Industrial Production for the Mining, Manufacturing and Electricity sectors for the month of May 2016 stand at 129.5, 188.6 and 204.2 respectively, with the corresponding growth rates of 1.3 percent, 0.7 percent and 4.7 percent as compared to May 2015 (Statement I). The cumulative growth in these three sectors during April-May 2016 over the corresponding period of 2015 has been 1.2 percent, (-) 1.5 percent and 9.4 percent respectively.

In terms of industries, fourteen out of the twenty two industry groups ( as per 2-digit NIC-2004) in the manufacturing sector h ave shown positive growth during the month of May 2016 as compared to the corresponding month of the previous year (St atement II). The industry group ‘Office, accounting & computing machinery’ has shown the highest positive growth of 18.8 percent followed by 14.8 percent in ‘Machinery & equipment n.e.c.’ and 10.1 percent in ‘Medical, precision & optical instruments, watches and clocks’. On the other hand, ‘Electrical machinery & apparatus n.e.c.’ has shown the highest negative growth of (-) 41.1 percent, followed by (-) 8.1 percent in ‘Furniture; manufacturing n.e.c.’ and (-) 7.6 percent in ‘Luggage, handbags, saddlery, harness & footwear; tanning and dressing of leather products’.

As per Use-based classification, the growth rates in May 2016 over May 2015 are 3.9 percent in Basic goods, (-) 12.4 percent in Capital goods and 3.6 percent in Intermediate goods (Statement III).  The Consumer durables and Consumer non-durables have recorded growth of 6.0 percent and (-) 2.2 percent respectively, with the overall growth in Consumer goods being 1.1 percent.

Some important items that have registered high positive growth include ‘Woollen Carpets’ (67.0%), ‘Di Ammonium Phosphate (DAP)’ (59.3%), ‘Aviation Turbine Fuel’ (48.2%), ‘Air Conditioner (Room)’ (38.6%), ‘Scooters and Mopeds’ (32.1%) and ‘Petrol’ (20.2%).

Some important items showing high negative growth during the current month over the same month in previous year include ‘Cable, Rubber Insulated’            [(-) 89.8%], ‘Sugar’ [(-) 69.1%], ‘Aluminium foils’ [(-) 65.8%], ‘Polythene Bags including HDPE & LDPE Bags’ [(-) 48.9%], ‘Cement Machinery’ [(-) 48.5%], ‘Marble Tiles/ Slabs’ [(-) 44.5%], ‘H R Sheets’ [(-) 39.9%], ‘Cashew Kernels’         [(-) 27.5%] and ‘Vitamins’ [(-) 25.6%].