Industrial production contracts 0.4% in December

IIP had risen by 5.7% in November; April-Dec IIP at 0.3% vs 3.2% YoY

Industrial output fell 0.4% in December from a year earlier, driven down by a contraction in consumer and capital goods production, government data showed on Friday.

A month back, industrial production belied all expectations of huge adverse impact of demonetisation with the index rising to a 13-month high of 5.7% in November against a contraction of 1.8% in the previous month.

The cumulative growth of the country's factory output for the April-December period was 0.3%, much lower as compared to the cumulative growth of 3.2 % during the corresponding period of the last fiscal.

Manufacturing, which constitutes three-fourth of the index feel by