India's Industrial Production growth rate slows to 4.9% in March 2024

India's Industrial Production ( IIP) growth rate slowed to 4.9 per cent in March as against 5.7 per cent in February, revealed the data provided by the Ministry of Statistics and Programme Implementation (MoSPI) on Friday.

The previous high of IIP was recorded at 11.9 per cent in October 2023, which slowed to 2.5 per cent in November, 4.2 per cent in December and 4.1 per cent in January 2024.

The cumulative growth rate for the period of April-March 2023-24 over the corresponding period of the previous year stood at 5.8 per cent.

The data released by the National Statistical Office (NSO) showed that the manufacturing sector's output grew 5.2 per cent in March 2024, from 5 per cent in February.

"Within the manufacturing sector, the growth rate of the top three positive contributors to the growth of IIP for the month of March 2024 are – “Manufacture of basic metals” (7.7 per cent), “Manufacture of pharmaceuticals, medicinal chemical and botanical products” (16.7 per cent), and “Manufacture of other transport equipment” (25.4 per cent)," stated the official release.

Meanwhile, power generation grew by 8.6 per cent YoY against a rise in February by 7.5 per cent. In March this year, mining production witnessed a growth of 1.2 per cent.

The corresponding growth rates of IIP as per Use-based classification in March 2024 over March 2023 stood at 2.5 per cent in primary goods, 6.1 per cent in capital goods, 5.1 per cent in intermediate goods, 6.9 per cent in infrastructure/construction goods, 9.5 per cent in consumer durables and 4.9 per cent in consumer non-durables, as per the official data.