Inflation hits 15-month high; industrial growth slows to 2.2% in Oct

New Delhi, December 12

Retail inflation hit a 15-month high of 4.88 per cent in November due to costlier fuel, vegetables and eggs, as per data released by the Central Statistics Office (CSO) on Monday.

The inflation, based on Consumer Price Index (CPI), was at 3.58 per cent in October. It was 3.63 per cent in November 2016. The previous high was recorded at 5.05 per cent in August last year.

Inflation in protein rich eggs shot to 7.95 per cent in November on annual basis, as against 0.69 per cent in the previous month.

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In the fuel and light segment, it was 7.92 per cent, as against 6.36 in October.

For vegetables it was 22.48 per cent in November. The inflation in the segment was a only 7.47 per cent in October.

However, in the pulses segment the print continued to show disinflationary trend as it contracted by 23.53 per cent on annual basis.

On overall basis, the inflation in the food segment increased to 4.42 per cent in November as compared to 1.9 per cent in the preceding month.

Industrial production growth slows to  2.2% in Oct

Meanwhile, industrial production growth hit a three-month low of 2.2 per cent in October this year, mainly due to subdued performance of manufacturing and mining sectors coupled with a contraction in output of consumer durables.

The factory output, measured in terms of the Index of Industrial Production (IIP), had witnessed a rise of 4.2 per cent in October 2016, data released by the Central Statistics Office (CSO) showed today.

When compared on a monthly basis, the IIP grew 4.14 per cent in September this year.

Industrial output rose by a meagre 2.5 per cent in April-October this fiscal as compared to 5.5 per cent in the same period of 2016-17.

In October, growth in the manufacturing sector, which accounts for 77.63 per cent of the index, slowed to 2.5 per cent from 4.8 per cent a year earlier.

During April-October, manufacturing grew by 2.1 per cent, down from 5.9 per cent in the same period last fiscal.

Consumer durable goods output contracted by 6.9 per cent in October as against a growth of 1.5 per cent in the same month of the previous year. During the first seven months of this fiscal, the output of these goods declined by 1.9 per cent as against a growth of 6 per cent last year.

Electricity generation rose 3.2 per cent in October as compared to 3 per cent a year before. The mining activity recorded almost flat growth of 0.2 per cent in the month under review as against 1 per cent growth in October 2016.

According to use-based classification, the growth rates in October 2017 over the year-ago month are 2.5 per cent in primary goods, 6.8 per cent in capital goods, 0.2 per cent in intermediate goods and 5.2 per cent in infrastructure/ construction goods.

The consumer non-durables have recorded a growth of 7.7 per cent.

In terms of industries, 10 out of 23 industry groups in the manufacturing sector have shown positive growth during October 2017 as compared to the corresponding month of the previous year.

The industry group ‘Manufacture of pharmaceuticals, medicinal chemical and botanical products’ has shown the highest positive growth of 23 per cent followed by 12.8 per cent in ‘Manufacture of motor vehicles, trailers and semi- trailers’ and 9.7 per cent in ‘Manufacture of computer, electronic and optical products’.

On the other hand, the industry group ‘Other manufacturing’ has shown the highest negative growth of (-) 36.4 per cent followed by (-) 20.9 per cent in ‘Manufacture of tobacco products’ and (-) 16.1 per cent in ‘Manufacture of rubber and plastic products’. — PTI