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NEW DELHI, April 10

INDUSTRY appears to be on a sustained revival path, with the official Index of Industrial Production (IIP) growing by 6.4 per cent in February as against 2.4 per cent during the same month last year.

The 6.4 per cent year-on-year overall growth (based on the quick estimates of IIP released by the Central Statistical Organisation here on Thursday) has been mainly powered by the manufacturing sector, the index of which rose by 6.5 per cent in February as compared to 2.9 per cent in February 2002. The corresponding growth rates for the indices of mining and electricity amounted to 7.2 per cent (2.1 per cent) and 0.1 per cent (2.9 per cent).

For the period from April 2002-February 2003, the overall year-on-year increase in the country's industrial output was estimated at 5.7 per cent (against 2.6 per cent during the first 11 months of the previous fiscal), with the corresponding cumulative growth rates being 5.8 per cent (2.8 per cent) for manufacturing, 5.7 per cent (1.1 per cent) for mining and 3.5 per cent (2.9 per cent) for electricity.

A reassuring feature has been the performance of the capital goods sub-sector. Production of capital goods — considered to be a proxy for investment activity in the economy — has gone up by 9.9 per cent in February 2003 and 10.7 per cent during April-February 2002-03 compared to the previous year's corresponding growth levels of 1.1 per cent and minus 4.2 per cent, respectively.

A similar buoyant trend has been observed for basic, intermediate and consumer non-durable goods, with their growth rates during February estimated at 4.9 per cent (3.6 per cent in February 2002), 5.9 per cent (1.8 per cent) and 11.1 per cent (2.6 per cent), respectively. For April-February 2002-03, the year-on-year growth stood at 4.8 per cent for basic goods (against 2.5 per cent during April-February 2001-02), 3.4 per cent for intermediate goods (two per cent) and 12 per cent for consumer non-durables (3.7 per cent).

The only sub-sector (based on the use-based classification of the IIP) that has fared poorly during the first 11 months of 2002-03 has been consumer durables, with its index falling by 5.7 per cent, after notching up a 11.9 per cent growth in April-February 2001-02. Even in February, the growth rate for this sub-sector was minus 9.4 per cent, as against 6.3 per cent during the same month of the previous year.

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