A dismal performance by the mining and manufacturing sectors pulled down the countrys index for industrial production (IIP) in May to a nine-month low of 5.6 per cent as against 8.5 per cent registered during the same period a year ago. While experts said that the persistence of high inflation along with high input costs has been impacting industrial production,Finance Minister Pranab Mukherjee termed the factory output numbers as not encouraging and said that the government was in touch with various stakeholders to enhance the contribution of the manufacturing sector in the overall GDP. Official data released on Tuesday also included a downward revision of Aprils industrial output figure to 5.7 per cent from 6.3 per cent as against 13.1 per cent year-on-year as per the new series with a base year of 2004-05. The mining sector grew by an abysmal 1.4 per cent in May as against 7.9 per cent during the same period a year ago,while manufacturing grew by a mere 5.6 per cent as compared to 8.9 per cent year-on-year. According to experts,the slowdown in mining reflected the impact of environmental clearances and transportation bottlenecks. Economists said the numbers reaffirm a continuing moderation in the economy even as the government maintained that the monthly numbers should not be seen as a trend-setter. I do not always take into account monthly and weekly figures as the real trend-setter. At least quarterly figures will have to be taken into account. Otherwise,there are problems,of course, Mukherjee said. Production in capital goods and intermediate goods registered a sharp decline with the sectors growing by a 5.9 per cent and 0.9 per cent in May as against 15.8 per cent and 11.7 per cent during the period last year. Factory output of consumer durables and consumer goods also declined with the growth in the sectors being 5.2 per cent and 5.4 per cent respectively in May. In the manufacturing sector 14 out of 22 industry groups have shown positive growth during May.
