Showing sluggishness in the economy amid the pandemic, industrial production contracted for the second straight month by 3.6 per cent in February due to poor performance of manufacturing and mining sectors, official data showed on Monday.
The manufacturing sector -- which constitutes 77.63 per cent of the index of industrial production (IIP) -- declined by 3.7 per cent in February 2021, as per the data released by the National Statistical Office (NSO).
The mining sector output declined by 5.5 per cent in February 2021.
However, power generation grew marginally by 0.1 per cent in the month under review.
The index had grown by 5.2 per cent in February 2020.
The industrial production had plunged 18.7 per cent in March last year following the COVID-19 outbreak and remained in the negative zone till August 2020.
With the resumption of economic activities, factory output posted a rise of one per cent in September. The IIP had grown by 4.5 per cent in October. In November 2020, the factory output fell 1.6 per cent, while it again entered the positive territory by growing 1.6 per cent in December 2020.