Industrial growth slips to 7.6% in Dec 07

New Delhi, Feb 17 (UNI) Loss of momentum, particularly arising from the consumption side, has led to a deceleration in the general index of industrial production (IIP) as it slipped to 7.6 per cent for December 2007, as against 13.4 per cent in the corresponding month of 2006.

Growth of mining, manufacturing and electricity slowed down substantially to three per cent, 8.4 per cent and 3.8 per cent in December 2007 as compared to 6.1 per cent, 14.5 per cent and 9.1 per cent in December 2006 respectively, according to the quick estimates of the IIP.

The cumulative growth during April-December 2007-08 over the corresponding period of 2006-07 in the three sectors are 4.9 per cent, 9.6 per cent and 6.6 per cent respectively.

Metal Products and Parts, except machinery and Equipment, also performed poorly during the month of December, recording negative growth of 23.6 per cent. Wool, Silk and man-made fibre textiles recorded a dismal two per cent growth while non-metallic mineral products showed a 1.7 per cent growth rate.

Growth rate of basic goods plummeted to 3.1 per cent in December 2007, as against 12.4 per cent in the corresponding month last year.

Consumer goods output rose an annual 8.7 per cent, and capital goods output continued to grow at 16.6 per cent in December 2007, as against 26.2 per cent in the same month last year.

The cumulative growth for the period April-December 2007-08 moved down to nine per cent from 11.2 per cent in the corresponding period of the previous year.

The industrial growth rate for November 2007 has been revised downwards to 5.1 per cent from 5.3 per cent reported earlier.

UNI PBB MP BST1407