Coal news and updates

Nov IIP falls 2.1%, contracts for 2 consecutive months

January 13: India's Index of Industrial Production (IIP) fell 2.1% on a year-on-year basis in November, 2013, sharper than October's decline of 1.8% y-o-y, indicating contraction for two consecutive months, according to provisional data released by the Ministry of Statistics and Programme Implementation.

According to the data released by the government, industrial output for April-November 2013-14 contracted 0.2% compared to a growth of 1.0% during the same period of 2012-13.

Despite a pick-up in core infrastructure industries such as mining and electricity, industrial production fell in November 2013 as the manufacturing sector contacted 3.5%  to  170.3 in November 2013, against a growth of 0.30% in the year-ago period (November 2012).

On a cumulative basis, the sector's output contracted by 0.6% during April-November, 2013-14 compared to a growth of 1.0% in the same period of 2012-13.

Power generation stood at 158.5 in the month under review, registering a growth of 6.3% over a growth of 2.4% during the corresponding period last year. The segment grew by 5.4% in April-November, 2013-14 over 4.4% growth during the corresponding period of 2012-13.

The mining sector, with a weight of about 14% in the IIP, grew 1.0% to 122.9 in November 2013, as against a 5.5% contraction in the same month last fiscal. However, during April-November, 2013-14 the output shrank by 2.2% as against a contraction of 1.5 % in the same period in 2012-13.

Capital goods production, a barometer of demand, showed a growth of 3.3% in the month as against a contraction of 7.7% in November 2012.

The consumer durables segment contracted by 21.5% in November 2013 and consumer non-durables grew by 2.5% over November 2012 with the overall growth in consumer goods having contracted 8.7% for the month under review.