Industrial Production Sees Sharpest Fall in 8 years at 16.7% in March

New Delhi: India's industrial production contracted by a record 16.7% in March, on account of poor show by mining, manufacturing and electricity sectors mainly due to the nationwide lockdown, government data showed on Tuesday.

The government had imposed the lockdown to contain COVID-19 from March 25.

The 16.7% fall in factory output is the sharpest since April 2012, based on the new series of IIP data with base year 2011-12.

The Index of Industrial Production (IIP) had grown by 2.7% in March, 2019.

According to National Statistical Office (NSO) data, manufacturing sector output fell 20.6% compared with a growth of 3.1%in the same month a year ago.

Electricity generation declined by 6.8%against a growth of 2.2% in March 2019.

Mining sector output remained flat compared to a growth of 0.8% earlier.

The IIP in the last fiscal contracted by 0.7% from 3.8%expansion in 2018-19.

The data for March showed that production of capital goods, a barometer of investment, declined by 35.6% as compared to a contraction of 9.1% in the same month previous year.

As per use-based classification, primary good registered a contraction of 3.1%, intermediate goods 18.5% (-) and infrastructure/ construction goods 23.8% (-) in March 2020 over the same period previous year.

The consumer durables output fell 33.1%, while non-durables production slipped 16.2% in March.

In terms of industries, seven out of 23 industry groups in the manufacturing sector have shown positive growth in March 2020.