Stellar performance by manufacturing, capital goods sectors boosts growth
New Delhi : Industrial output grew by 7.1 per cent in December, maintaining the recovery momentum on the back of robust performance by manufacturing as well as higher offtake of capital goods and non-durable consumer goods.
The Index of Industrial Production (IIP) had grown at 2.4 per cent in December 2016, as per the data released on Monday by the Central Statistics Office (CSO).
The IIP growth for November, 2017 was revised upwards to 8.8 per cent from provisional estimates of 8.4 per cent released last month.
The IIP growth in December was mainly on account of uptick in manufacturing sector which constitutes 77.63 per cent of the index. It grew by 8.4 per cent during the month as compared to just 0.6 per cent in December 2016.
The capital goods, a barometer of investments, showed a sharp increase in output by 16.4 per cent in December, 2017 as against a decline of 6.2 per cent year ago.
The consumer non-durables, which are mainly fast moving consumer goods, too showed an increase of 16.5 per cent as against contraction of 0.2 per cent. As per use-based classification, the growth rates in December 2017 over December 2016 are 3.7 per cent in primary goods, 6.2 per cent in intermediate goods and 6.7 per cent in infrastructure/construction goods.
The consumer durables have recorded growth of 0.9 per cent in December 2017. In terms of industries, 16 out of 23 industry groups in the manufacturing sector have shown positive growth during December 2017 as compared to the same month year ago.
Fall in veggie, fruit prices pulls down inflation
New Delhi :mRetail inflation declined to 5.07 per cent in January due to easing prices of vegetables, fruits and fuel components, an official data showed on Monday.
Based on consumer price index (CPI), the inflation was at 5.21 per cent in December — a 17-month high, and 3.17 per cent in January last year.
The data released by the Central Statistics Office (CSO) showed that the rate of price rise for consumer foods eased to 4.7 per cent in January, from 4.96 per cent in December.
Inflation in the vegetable basket slowed to 26.97 per cent as against 29.13 in December. Prices of fruits too rose at a lower pace of 6.24 per cent last month, as against 6.63 per cent recorded in the preceding month.
Fuel and light inflation stood at 7.58 percent compared with 7.90 percent in December, while housing inflation stood at 8.33 percent from 8.25 percent in the previous month. The central bank has raised its inflation forecast to 5.1 percent for the January-March quarter, compared with 4.6 per cent for October-December.
