India's industrial production dips 0.3% in December

India's Industrial production dipped to 0.3 percent in December 2019 against 2.5 percent in the year-ago month on a poor show by the manufacturing sector.

The Index of Industrial Production (IIP) had grown at 2.5 percent in December 2018.

December IIP

According to the data released by the Central Statistics Office (CSO) on Wednesday, the manufacturing sector output declined by 1.2 percent compared to growth of 2.9 percent in the same month a year ago.

Electricity generation also dipped 0.1 percent as against a growth of 4.5 percent in December 2018. Mining sector output grew by 5.4 percent, compared to a contraction of 1 percent earlier.

Data for the December month further revealed that production of capital goods, a barometer of investment, slumped by 18.2 percent compared to a growth of 4.2 percent in the corresponding month of the previous year.

As per use-based classification, the growth rates in December 2019 over December 2018 were 2.2 percent for primary goods, 12.5 percent for intermediate goods and (-) 2.6 per cent for infrastructure/construction goods.

Consumer durables and non-durables recorded growth of (-) 6.7 percent and (-) 3.7 percent respectively.

In terms of industries, 16 out of the 23 industry groups in the manufacturing sector have shown negative growth during December 2019 as compared to the corresponding month of the previous year.

Industrial output, or factory output, is the closest approximation for measuring the economic activity of the country's business landscape.