Industrial production grows to 4.5 percent in February

The Industrial Output for February 2020 improved to 4.5 percent versus two percent in the previous month.

The output for February is the highest number since July 2019 – when it stood at 4.3 percent. The out performance is attributed to the higher output in mining, manufacturing and electricity sectors

Factory output is the closest approximation for measuring the economic activity of the country‘s business landscape.

The Index of Industrial Production (IIP) had slowed to a 20-month low of 0.1 per cent in February 2019.

The cumulative growth for the period of April-February 2019-20 over the corresponding period of the previous year stood at 0.9 percent.

India’s eight infrastructure grew at a 11-month high of 5.5 percent.

Mining sector growth stood at 10% vs 2.2% YoY, while infrastructure goods growth came in at 0.1% vs 1.9% YoY.

February’s numbers come at a point of uncertainty for the global economy, with countries around the world struggling to deal with the impact of the coronavirus; for India, the effects of the virus will mean the output numbers for March 2020 and April 2020 will take a hit due to the ongoing national lockdown.

India’s GDP growth is also predicted to take a hit – with estimates for the fiscal year 2019-2020 at 5 percent and forecast to slow down to 4.8 per cent for the current fiscal 2020-21.