Industry efficiency improves but new orders dip, show RBI surveys

Capacity utilisation in manufacturing rose to a 23-quarter high of 75.9% in October-December 2018

As the economy slowed in successive quarters in the last financial year, the manufacturing sector witnessed an interesting trend in the third quarter (Q3). While the efficiency of industrial activity rose to its best in the past six years in Q3, industry’s investment appetite showed the sharpest fall ever measured, latest results from the Reserve Bank of India (RBI) surveys show.

Capacity utilisation (CU) in manufacturing rose to a 23-quarter high at 75.9 per cent in October-December 2018. Only in the last quarter of 2012-13, a better utilisation of 78 per cent was recorded, according to Order Books, Inventories and Capacity