Industrial Growth Nosedives...

<?xml version="1.0" encoding="UTF-8"?><root available-locales="en_US," default-locale="en_US"><static-content language-id="en_US"><![CDATA[Amidst crisis in the global financial markets, India on Friday reported a sharp drop in industrial growth to 1.3 per cent in August from a high of 10.9 a year-ago. The manufacturing sector put out a dismal performance growing by a mere 1.1 per cent as against 10.7 per cent in the same period a year ago. For the five-month period (April-August 2008-09), the industrial growth saw a big drop to 4.9 per cent, from 10 per cent. After a brief recovery, the Bombay Stock Exchange benchmark Sensex fell again by over 900 points tracking release of the IIP and core infrastructure data. The growth in key infrastructure industries too dipped to 2.3 per cent in August 2008, compared with 9.5 per cent in the same period last year. The growth in power generation was abysmally low at 0.8 per cent in August, compared with 9.2 per cent during the same period in 2007-08. Growth in mining sector fell by four per cent in August as against 14.7 per cent last year. As per the use-based classification of goods, growth in capital goods was a mere fraction of what it was last year at 2.3 per cent in August as against 30.8 during the same month last year. Consumer goods, however, managed to grow by 5.1 per cent from nil growth in the same month a year ago. Similarly, consumer durables also bounced back to 5.1 per cent during the month from a negative growth of -6.2 per cent last year. The consumer non-durables category also showed improvement with five per cent growth in August as against 2.4 per cent in the year-ago period. Basic goods growth fell to around one-fourth at 3.9 per cent from 12.7 per cent last year. Intermediate goods registered a negative growth of 6.2 per cent as against 13.8 per cent a year ago. Among the industries, just 7 of 17 sectors recorded a positive growth. Wool, silk, and man-made fibre textiles saw the steepest fall with 14.9 per cent decline. Metal products and parts (except machinery and equipment) also saw a negative growth of 12.3 per cent. Jute and other other vegetable fibre textiles (except cotton) had a negative growth of 6.7 per cent. Rubber, plastic, petroleum and coal products declined by 8.4 per cent followed by leather and leather products which declined by seven per cent. However, transport equipment and parts grew by 11.2 per cent and food products registered a growth of 8.9 per cent. Textile products (including apparel) grew by 2.9 per cent during August. (PTI)