Pranab Mukherjee disappointed with 4.1% industrial output in Aug

NEW DELHI: Mr Pranab Mukherjee, Union Finance Minister, is disappointed with the industrial output growth of 4.1% during August. He has further stated that it is expected to affect India’s second (July-September) quarter Gross Domestic Product (GDP).

Mr Mukherjee, said, “To what extent it (slowdown in IIP) would affect, it would be premature to make any assessment. The silver lining is that IIP has improved from July figure... But compared to the corresponding period of previous year, it is quite low. ”

The factory output is measured by the Index of Industrial production (IIP). The figure of August has been lower than 4.5% during the same month last year.

Mr Pranab Mukherjee has not said anything in regard to the extent to which the subdued IIP numbers will affect the economic growth in the July-September quarter (Q2) of this fiscal.

India’s economic growth has slipped to an 18-month low of 7.7% during the April-June period (Q1). Centre is hoping that India to grow nearly 8.5% during 2011-12. The IIP growth in the period April-August was at 5.6% as compared to 8.7% in the corresponding period of 2010-11.
Meanwhile, the July IIP growth has been revised from 3.3% to 3.8%. Also, the Economic Affairs Secretary, Mr R Gopalan, has stated that the slowdown in the IIP numbers is worrisome but the figures are likely to improve from here.