Lower IIP mostly because of statistical issues, says CEA

Finance Ministry has attributed the decline in November industrial production to a 4-year low to statistical reasons, particularly due to lesser number of working days due to Diwali and the impact of Chennai floods.

“This number is effected by two factors. One is Diwali in November and as a result, there were fewer working days. And also, some impact of Chennai floods was also present in the data,” Chief Economic Advisor (CEA) Arvind Subramanian told reporters while commenting on the data.

“When the October number came, which was very positive, we had said that could be artificially high and this is probably artificially low.”

He further said the IIP number for the year as a whole is still higher than last year’s and “broadly, the trend seems to be upwards”.

“So, broadly what I feel is that data are consistent with what we said in the Mid-Year Analysis that economy is probably recovering but sending mixed signals, some good, some scope for improvement,” he said.

On retail inflation, he said: “I think RBI target for inflation is going to be met, nothing to be unduly worried about.”