Sluggishness in manufacturing sector resulted into industrial production contracting 0.6 per cent in December 2013. Growth rate remained negative for the third month in a row as during December 2012 as well, the factory output, as measured in terms of the Index of Industrial Production (IIP), had contracted by 0.6 per cent.
Meanwhile, contraction in IIP during November 2013 has been revised to 1.3 per cent, from the provisional estimate of 2.1 per cent dip.The decline in factory output, which began in October with IIP contracting by 1.6 per cent, continued in December, as per the government data released on Wednesday.
Industrial output for the April-December period of this fiscal, has thus contracted by 0.1 per cent, compared to growth of 0.7 per cent in the same period of 2012-13. The manufacturing sector, which constitutes over 75 per cent of the index, declined by 1.6 per cent in December, as against a contraction of 0.8 per cent in the year-ago period. During April-December, the sector’s output contracted 0.6 per cent compared to a growth of 0.6 per cent in same period in 2012.