Industrial production rises 8-month high of 3.6% in Oct: Govt data

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New Delhi: India's industrial production rose to an eight-month high of 3.6 percent in October on the back of a recovery in manufacturing, consumer goods, and power sectors, according to data released by National Statistical Office (NSO) on Friday.

The manufacturing sector, which has a weightage of 77.6 percent in the IIP, recorded a growth of 3.5 percent in October. In the year-ago period, the sector had a contraction of 5.7 percent, according to data released by the National Statistical Office (NSO) on Friday.

As per the use-based classification, the indices stand at 117.7 for Primary Goods, 91.4 for Capital Goods, 137.5 for Intermediate Goods, and 140.0 for Infrastructure/ Construction Goods for the month of October 2020.  Further, the indices for Consumer durables and Consumer non-durables stand at 133.2 and 149.0 respectively for the month of October 2020.

Along with the Quick Estimates of IIP for the month of October 2020, the indices for September 2020 have undergone the first revision and those for July 2020 have undergone the final revision in the light of the updated data received from the source agencies. 

The Quick Estimates for October 2020, the first revision for September 2020, and the final revision for July 2020 have been compiled at weighted response rates of 90 percent, 94 percent and 95 percent respectively, said the Ministry of Statistics & Programme Implementation statement.

The industrial production witnessed a 5.2 percent growth in February this year. Thereafter, it entered the negative territory in March and remained in the contraction zone till August. In September, there was a marginal growth of 0.5 percent.

On March 25, the government had imposed a lockdown to contain the spread of COVID-19 infections and that had also disrupted economic activities. However, with the gradual relaxation of restrictions, there has been a relative improvement in economic activities.

Rating agency Icra's Principal Economist Aditi Nayar told PTI that while the IIP growth stood at an eight month-high and displayed its best performance since the pandemic struck, the pace of the improvement in October 2020 was feebler than expected.

"The 3.6 percent rise in the IIP in October 2020 trailed our expectation of a sharper growth of 5.5 percent, that we thought would be driven by the building up of inventories prior to the festive season," she added.