IIP plunges to over 4-year low at (-) 3.2% in November

Dashing hopes of recovery, industrial production contracted by 3.2 per cent in November -- the lowest level in over four years—due to poor performance of manufacturing sector and a sharp decline in capital goods output.

The Index of Industrial Production (IPP) measuring factory output, grew at 5.2 per cent in November, 2014, as per the data released by the Central Statistics Office (CSO) today.

This is the worst performance since October 2011 when IIP had contracted by 4.7 per cent.

The industrial production growth in October was slightly revised upwards to 9.9 per cent from provisional estimates of 9.8 per cent released last month.

The manufacturing sector, which constitutes over 75 per cent of the index, contracted by 4.4 per cent as against a growth of 4.7 per cent in the same month last year.

Seventeen out of 22 industry groups in the manufacturing segment showed negative growth during November 2015 compared to the corresponding month of the previous year.

Capital goods output, which is a barometer of investment, contracted by 24.4 per cent in November 2015 compared to a growth of 7 per cent in same month of previous year.

The electricity sector, which constitutes about 10 per cent of the index, also showed dismal performance as it grew by meagre 0.7 per cent in November 2015 compared to 10 per cent growth in same month a year ago.

The mining sector output grew by 2.3 per cent in November 2015 against 4 per cent growth in the same month a year ago.

Overall consumer goods production grew at 1.3 per cent in November 2015 against contraction of 1.6 per cent in same month of 2014.