Tribune News Service
New Delhi, January 12
After remaining in positive territory for barely two months, the Index of Industrial Production (IIP) contracted by 1.9 % in November, 2020, mainly due to poor showing by the manufacturing and mining sectors, according to official data released by the National Statistical Office (NSO) on Tuesday.
Retail Inflation drops to 4.59% in Dec
- Retail inflation fell sharply to 4.59% in December, mainly due to declining food prices, government data showed on Tuesday
- Retail inflation based on the Consumer Price Index (CPI) was 6.93% in November
- Food inflation declined to 3.41% in December in 2020, compared to 9.5% in the previous month, according to the data released by the Ministry of Statistics and Programme Implementation
As a result, the IIP for the April-November period has contracted by 15.5 %.
The manufacturing sector — which constitutes 77.63 % of the IIP index — registered contraction of 1.7 % in November 2020. The mining sector declined by 7.3 %. Power generation was the saving grace with a growth rate of 3.5 %.
The IIP had grown by 2.1% in November 2019.
After registering a 18.7 % contraction in March last year, industrial production seemed to have turned the corner in September with a growth of 0.48 % in September followed by a more encouraging 4.9 % in October last year.
The output of capital goods fell by 7.1% in November 2020, consumer durables output fell by 0.7% and consumer non-durable goods production fell by 0.7%.
However the Ministry of Statistics and Programme Implementation has said it may not be appropriate to compare the IIP in post-pandemic months with the data before the Central Government imposed a lockdown. The government had imposed a lockdown to contain the spread of Covid infections on March 25, 2020.
With the gradual relaxation of restrictions, there has been a relative improvement in the economic activities by varying degrees as well as in data reporting, the minisry had said in November.
Join Whatsapp Channel of The Tribune for latest updates.
4
7