Declining industrial growth rate 'disturbing': Pranab

Finance Minister Pranab Mukherjee today described the decline in industrial growth rate in April as "disturbing" and said he would wait for more data to ascertain the trend.

Finance Minister Pranab Mukherjee on Friday described the decline in industrial growth rate in April as "disturbing" and said he would wait for more data to ascertain the trend.

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"The IIP growth figures are disturbing. (We) need to wait for longer term IIP growth to see the trend", he told reporters here.

The Index of Industrial Production (IIP) as per the new series (base year 2004-05) declined to 6.3 % in April from 13.1 % in the corresponding period last year.

As per the old series (base year 1993-94), industrial output registered a steeper fall in April to 4.4 % from 16.6 % a year ago.

The decline has mainly been on account of poor performance of the manufacturing and mining sectors.

The growth in manufacturing, which constitutes about 80 % of the index weight, nosedived to 4.4 % in April from a high of 18 % in the same month last year, as per the old series.

Mining grew by a meagre 2.1 % during the month under review as against 12 % in April, 2010.

Similar trends were noticed in the new data series, which revealed decline in manufacturing sector during the month to 6.9% from 14.4 % and mining sector output to 2.2 % from 9.2 % in the year ago period.