New Delhi: India’s manufacturing sector is showing signs of revival, according to a survey carried out by the Confederation of Indian Industries (CII).
“This improvement in manufacturing growth has been a result of the stimulus packages announced by the government,” CII director general Chandrajit Banerjee said in a statement.
Positive outlook: CII director general Chandrajit Banerjee says the improvement in the sector has been a result of the stimulus packages. Rajkumar / Mint
The survey, carried out by CII’s Association of Manufacturing, Agriculture and Service Councils (Ascon) acts as a bellwether for manufacturing output measured by the Union government’s Index of Industrial Production (IIP)— usually reported with a lag of six weeks.
Growth rates in the CII-Ascon survey are based on data from member firms of CII and its affiliated associations. These make up around 65% of total industry output in the country. A total of 100 sectors were surveyed.
The survey showed an increase in sectors reporting “excellent” growth, which the survey describes as over 20%. One-tenth of the sectors surveyed in the April-September period fell in this category compared with 7% during the same period the year before.
Significantly, construction and earth moving equipment recorded excellent growth. This echoes the pick-up in economic sentiment that has resulted in rising truck sales in the last two months.
While the sectors recording high growth (10-20%) stayed the same at 26%, there was a decline in the sectors that registered “moderate” growth of 0-10%. They fell from 42% to 36%. Aluminium, cement, fertilizers, paints, circuit breakers and light commercial vehicles registered moderate growth.
Exports continue to be a laggard as the global economy takes time in recovering. Twenty out of 29 sectors surveyed reported negative growth rates. Automobiles exports were a bright spot as global demand for small cars increased. Car exports jumped 35% in the April-September period while light truck shipments jumped 26%.