New Delhi, April 11: Industrial growth slowed to 3.6 percent in February, 2011, compared to 15.1 percent expansion in the year-ago period, dragged down by poor performance of manufacturing and mining sectors.
However, overall 15 out of 17 industry groups achieved positive growth in the second month of 2011.
Growth in factory output in February, as measured in terms of the Index of Industrial Production (IIP), was lower than the 3.95 percent expansion (revised upward from 3.7 percent) witnessed in the previous month.
Industrial output growth during the April-February period this fiscal stood at 7.8 percent vis-a-vis the corresponding period of the previous year.
In contrast, industrial output had expanded by 10 percent year-on-year in April-February, 2009-10, official data released here today shows.
In February, manufacturing growth plummeted to 3.5 percent from 16.1 percent a year ago.
The capital goods sector contracted by 18.4 percent in the month under review. The sector had posted a robust growth of 46.7 percent in February, 2010.
However, production in the consumer non-durables segment went up by 6.1 percent during the month under review. It had contracted by 0.8 percent in the same period a year ago.
Consumer durables segment grew by 23.4 percent in February as against 29.1 percent in the same month of last year.
Overall consumer goods reported a rise of 11.1 percent as against 6.3 percent during the month under review.
Intermediate goods reported a rise of 8.4 percent during the month as against a growth of 15.9 percent in February 2010.
Mining growth also plummeted to 0.6 percent in the month under review from 11 percent in the comparable month of 2010. Electricity generation output rose by 6.7 percent in February, compared to 7.3 percent growth in the same month last year.
-PTI