India's Feb IIP rises 2% MoM; Aluminium Conductor charts 23.5% growth

There is a sense of 'economic' cheer in the air, so to speak, after the February IIP stood at 2 per cent versus (-) 1.5 per cent in January. After spending three months in the negative territory, factory output finally rose on the back of a strong performance by mining and electricity sectors, while retail inflation moderated further in March.

Also just recently, the Reserve Bank of India in its monetary policy review cut policy rate by 25 basis points and announced several steps increase liquidity.

The General Index for the month of February 2016 stands at 184.6. The cumulative growth for the period April-February 2015-16 over the corresponding period of the previous year stands at 2.6 per cent.

The Indices of Industrial Production for the Mining, Manufacturing and Electricity sectors for the month of February 2016 stand at 136.1, 194.1 and 181.9 respectively, with the corresponding growth rates of 5.0 per cent, 0.7 per cent and 9.6 per cent as compared to February 2015 (Statement I). The cumulative growth in these three sectors during April-February 2015-16 over the corresponding period of 2014-15 has been 2.4 per cent, 2.3 per cent and 5.1 per cent respectively.

In terms of industries, sixteen out of the twenty two industry groups in the manufacturing sector have shown positive growth during the month of February 2016 as compared to the corresponding month of the previous year.

As per use-based classification, the growth rates in February 2016 over February 2015 are 5.4 per cent in Basic goods, (-) 9.8 per cent in Capital goods and 5.7 per cent in Intermediate goods (Statement III). The Consumer durables and Consumer non-durables have recorded growth of 9.7 per cent and (-) 4.2 per cent respectively, with the overall growth in Consumer goods being 0.8 per cent.

Positive growth was contributed by Aluminium wires & extrusions (28.6 per cent) and Aluminium Conductor (23.5 per cent) among other end-user industries.

Among the laggards, who have registered high negative growth during the current month over the same month in previous year are Cable, Aluminium Foils [(-) 68.7 per cent] and Aerated Waters & Soft Drinks among other industries.