Industrial production grew at a five-month low of 2.1 per cent in March even as both manufacturing activity and capital goods' offtake improved during the month, according to the data released by the Central Statistics Office on Tuesday.
The data, however, showed that the factory output, as measured by the Index of Industrial Production (IIP), had contracted by 0.5 per cent in March 2014. For 2014-15 fiscal, industrial production grew at 2.8 per cent as against contraction of 0.1 per cent in 2013-14.
Meanwhile, the IIP for the February month has been revised downwards to 4.86 per cent per cent from the provisional estimate of 5 per cent released last month. "The IIP had grown at 2.77 per cent in January, 3.56 per cent in December and 5.2 per cent in November. The factory output contracted around 2.7 per cent in the month of October," the data said.
Manufacturing output, which constitutes over 75 per cent of the index, the data showed, grew by 2.2 per cent in March against a contraction of 1.3 per cent in the same month a year ago.
"The production of capital goods, a barometer of demand, grew by 7.6 per cent in March as against a contraction of 11.5 per cent in same month of last year," it said.
However, mining sector grew by 0.9 per cent in March 2015 against 0.5 per cent expansion in the same month last year. Overall, 13 out of 22 industry groups in the manufacturing sector showed positive growth during the month of March.
For whole 2014-15, the manufacturing sector expanded by 2.3 per cent, against a contraction of 0.8 per cent in 2013-14. Capital goods output grew by 6.2 per cent in last fiscal as against a dip of 3.6 per cent in 2013-14. Mining output rose by 1.4 per cent last fiscal against a contraction of 0.6 per cent in 2013-14, it showed
Power generation also grew by 2 per cent in March against 5.4 per cent in the same month last year. "During 2014-15, power generation grew at 8.4 per cent compared to a growth of 6.1 per cent in previous fiscal," it said.
The overall consumer goods output contracted 0.7 per cent in March compared to a dip of 2.2 per cent in the same month last year. The output was also contracted by 3.5 per in the entire 2014-15 fiscal compared to a decline in production by 2.8 per cent in the same month last year.
The consumer non-durable production grew by 1.9 per cent in March compared to a growth of 5 per cent in same month last year. During 2014-15, the segment grew by 2.8 per cent compared to a growth of 4.8 per cent in previous fiscal.