Growth of key sectors – crude, petroleum refinery products, coal, electricity, finished steel and cement slowed down by half in February to 4.5 percent compared to a healthy growth of 9.4 percent in January. Compared to the growth in the past 3 months with a 6 per cent growth in November, 6.4 in December and 9.4 per cent in January, February growth was very low. On year to month basis, these sectors together witnessed a growth of 5.3 percent against 2.9 per cent in the previous fiscal.
Finished steel growth was bad as it grew only by 0.9 percent this February against 2.4 percent last February. Petroleum refining growth was also poor and grew only by 0.8 percent this February and cement growth was around 0.9 percent against 2.4 percent last February. Crude oil and electricity performed well growing by 4 percent and 7.3 percent against negative 6.2 percent and 0.6 percent respectively. Coal witnesses a marginal growth of 6.8 percent growth against 6 percent last February.
According to Crisil principal economist DK Joshi, “Given these numbers, I think the IIP figures would come down and would be in the range of 10-11 per cent in the coming months.” And HDFC Bank economist Jyotinder Kaur said, “We may see some kind of moderation in industrial growth…will finish the fiscal by 10 per cent growth in IIP.”
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