The survey is based on 2,500 manufacturing companies with a good mix of size and nature of activity, RBI said.
The level of capacity utilisation in the Indian manufacturing industry continued to be in the lower trajectory in 2015-16, but the capacity utilisation recorded a seasonal pick-up in Q4 and stood at 74.1 per cent, similar to the level recorded in the corresponding period of FY15.
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RBI's Consumer Confidence Survey, showed sentiments on economic conditions improved in the second half of 2015-16 along with those on income and employment.
In case of spending, the positive sentiment declined in the second half of FY16 but improved in the first quarter of FY17.
Similarly, in an annual study on private corporate investment, RBI found that projects financed by banks and financial institutions signalled marginal improvement in investment sentiment in comparison with FY15.
The estimated capital expenditure was Rs 1,51,200 crore in 2015-16, 24.7 per cent lower than the revised estimate of 2014-15.The capital expenditure planned for 2016-17 amounted to Rs 67,400 crore.
"In order to maintain the level of CapEx envisaged in 2015-16, a CapEx of Rs 838 billion (Rs 83,800 crore) would have to come from new investment intentions of the private corporate sector in 2016-17," the RBI study said.
"In 2015-16, total cost of projects receiving finance through banks/FIs, ECBs/FCCBs or IPOs aggregated to Rs 1,387 billion (Rs 1.39 lakh crore) as against Rs 1,456 billion (Rs 1.46 lakh crore) in 2014-15," RBI said.