Industrial output at 4.5% in Feb, may shrink in March over Covid-19 crisis

A rebound in manufacturing activity pulled up February’s overall industrial output, helping it to grow to a seven-month high of 4.5 per cent, up from January’s 2 per cent. However, the sudden growth came amid worries of growth tapering off in the following months due to the coronavirus disease (Covid-19) outbreak.

The rise in the Index of Industrial Production (IIP) helped pull up cumulative growth in industrial output to 0.9 per cent in the April-February period of 2019-20, the data released on Thursday showed. This was still much lower than the 4 per cent growth in industrial production seen in