Industry India
Industry India

The Index of Industrial Production grew 4.7 percent in May 2014 since October 2012, according to the data released by Central Statistics Office of the Ministry of Statistics and Programme Implementation on Friday.

Also, the overall IIP has surged by one percent this year compared to loss of 3.2 percent last year.

The data provided optimistic news for BJP government. On 10 July, Finance Minister Arun Jaitley had announced his first annual budget with many structural reforms and fiscal consolidation.

IIP had been obtained using data from 16 source agencies across the nation. The report said the inclining growth for the month of April-May in 2014-15 over the matching duration of previous years stood at 4 percent.

"It shows that things have started improving," Reuters quoted Rupa Rege Nitsure, chief economist at Bank of Baroda.

"Just going by this data one cannot say the trend will necessarily be improving henceforth, given the risks of a deficient monsoon and its impact on the whole consumption side of the economy," she added by relating weak monsoon that could delay economic growth.

As compared to May 2013, IIP rate for mining, manufacturing and electricity sectors grew by 2.7 percent, 4.8 percent and 6.3 percent respectively this year.

Furniture manufacturing topped the industrial sector with growth of 60 percent, followed by tobacco products by 37.1 percent and electrical equipments with surge of 33.7 percent respectively.

Besides, radio & TV industries topped the list with most loss by 40.3 percent, followed by office, accounting & computing (-28.6 percent) and motor vehicles (-7.4 percent). On other hand, consumer goods has recorded growth of 3.7 percent.

Products that recorded highest losses are aluminium conductor (-60.3 percent), lubricating oil (-51.3 percent), telephone accessories (-47.8 percent), computers (-38.1 percent) polythene bags (-29.5 percent), antibiotics (-27.2 percent), commercial vehicles (-22.7 percent) and boilers (-21.8 percent) in May this year.

However, the manufacturing sector, constituting three-fourth of the IIP, grew 4.8 percent in May, compared to decline in output by 3.2 per cent a year ago, Business Standard reported.

"While it is reassuring to see some pick up in the growth of manufacturing in May, but it needs to be seen in the context of the negative base,"  Business Standard quoted Sidharth Birla, President of Federation of Indian Chamber of Commerce and Industry.