Industrial output grows at 0.1 per cent in July

Industrial production growth rate slowed to just 0.1 per cent in July due to poor show by manufacturing, mining and capital goods sectors, reflecting weak economic activity which may prompt Reserve Bank of India (RBI) to cut interest rate in its mid-quarter policy review on Monday.

Industrial output in the April-July period of this fiscal has thus contracted by 0.1 per cent, according to the official data released on Wednesday.

Growth in factory output, as measured by the Index of Industrial Production (IIP), was 3.7 per cent in July last year, and 6.1 per cent in the April-July period in 2011-12.

The manufacturing sector, which constitutes over 75 per cent of the index, witnessed a contraction in output by 0.2 per cent in July, as against growth of 3.1 per cent in the same month last year.

The performance of the manufacturing sector in April-July was poor as output contracted by 0.6 per cent, as against a growth of 6.5 per cent in the four-month period of last year. The capital goods production also down by 5 per cent in July against a contraction of 13.7 per cent in the same month a year ago. The output of capital goods contracted in April-July period by 16.8 per cent, as against a growth of 8.2 per cent in 2011-12. Mining output in July dipped by 0.7 per cent, as against a growth of 0.7 per cent in the same month a year ago.