Industrial prodn growth drops to 11.1% in May

The growth in industrial production declined to 11.1% in May from 11.7% in May 2006 due to a significant deceleration in the manufacturing sector, which grew at 11.9% in May as against 13.3% in the same month last year.

The Central Statistical Organisation revised downwards the data for April - industrial production actually grew 12.3% as against 13.6% announced earlier. The revision was on account of a revision in mining and manufacturing data.

The decline in manufacturing growth in May was largely on account of weak growth of consumer goods (9.8% as against 10.5%) and intermediate goods (9.1% as against 12.5%).

The impact of hardening interest rates was clearly apparent on the consumer durables segment, which saw a sharp decline in growth rate to 2.6% in May from 17.5% in the same month last year.