Country's factory output growth rate slowed to 1.7 per cent in December last year on sequential basis mainly due to a contraction in the mining and quarrying sector.
The growth in factory output, as measured by the Index of Industrial Production (IIP), in the month under review was, however, higher as compared to December, 2013 when it expanded by 0.1 per cent. The November IIP has been revised upwards to 3.9 per cent from 3.8 per cent. For the April-December period of 2014-15, IIP is 2.1 per cent as against 0.1 per cent in same period of the last fiscal.
As per Government data released on Thursday, manufacturing output, which constitutes over 75 per cent to the index, grew by 2.1 per cent in December compared to a dip of 1.1 per cent in the same month a year ago. Thirteen out of the 22 industry groups in the manufacturing sector have shown positive growth during the month of December 2014 year-on-year