The Hindu Business Line : Industrial growth at 5.7 pc in May

INDUSTRY seems well entrenched on revival mode, with the official Index of Industrial Production (IIP) registering a 5.7 per cent growth during May, compared to the corresponding year-on-year figure of 4.1 per cent for May 2002.

What is particularly an encouraging sign is that the `manufacturing' sector, with a weight of 79.36 per cent in the general IIP, has recorded a 6.1 per cent growth rate during May 2003 (against four per cent in May 2002), with the indices for `mining' (10.47 per cent weight) and `electricity' (10.17 per cent weight) going up by 2.5 per cent (7.9 per cent) and 4.9 per cent (2.2 per cent), respectively.

The cumulative growth rate for industry as a whole during the first two months of the current fiscal works out to five per cent (compared to 4.1 per cent for April-May 2003), with the corresponding figures amounting to 5.2 per cent (four per cent) for manufacturing, 4.2 per cent (5.8 per cent) for mining and 3.4 per cent (3.7 per cent) for electricity.

The `used-based' break-up of the IIP provides further confirmation of a genuine manufacturing turnaround taking place. Capital goods production — which is a proxy for investment activity in the economy — has gone up by 9.3 per cent in May 2003 and 8.1 per cent during April-May 2003, as against their respective previous year growth rates of 5.1 per cent and 2.2 per cent.

During May 2003, the indices for `basic goods', `intermediate goods', `consumer durables' and `consumer non-durables' rose by four per cent, zero per cent, 6.8 per cent and 13 per cent, compared to their corresponding May 2002 levels of 5.6 per cent, zero per cent, minus 6.7 per cent and 12 per cent, respectively.

For the April-May 2003 period, the growth rate for basic goods worked out to 3.7 per cent (5.1 per cent in April-May 2002), while amounting to 1.1 per cent (zero per cent) for intermediate goods, 2.7 per cent (minus 1.7 per cent) for consumer durables and 12 per cent (11.3 per cent) for consumer non-durables).

Article E-Mail :: Comment :: Syndication

Stories in this Section
Industrial growth at 5.7 pc in May

First phase of CAS rollout set for Sept 1

Four in race for 51 pc Govt stake in Engineers India

Want to check attrition, try the Hughes way

Tata Fin board okays pref issue

SEBI sets store by fair code for public nominees on SEs

Corporates go for security software

First case filed under cyberlaw