Prices of food remained elevated. File
| Photo Credit: SUSHIL KUMAR VERMA

India’s retail inflation remained virtually unchanged at 5.09% in February from 5.10% in January, even as food prices paid by consumers rose from 8.3% to 8.66%, the National Statistical Office said on March 12.

The industrial output growth slowed to 3.8% in January, from an upgraded uptick of 4.24% in December. The manufacturing sector’s growth slowed to 3.2% from 4.5% a month ago, even as the uptick in mining and electricity generation accelerated to 5.9% and 5.6%, respectively.

The production of consumer durables jumped 10.9%, the highest in three months. However, consumer non-durables output shrank 0.3%, marking the second year-on-year drop in production levels in three months.

The production of capital goods picked up pace to grow 4.1% in January, and intermediate goods also grew faster at 4.8% compared to 3.9% in December 2023. However, the growth rates for primary goods and infrastructure/construction goods eased to 2.9% and 4.6%, respectively in January.

Eight of the 23 manufacturing segments tracked by the National Statistical Office to compute the Index of Industrial Production (IIP) recorded a contraction in January, with computers, electronics and optic products seeing the steepest fall of 11.9%, while pharmaceuticals’ output remained flat compared to last January. Between April 2023 and January 2024, electronics and computers have now contracted 14%, second only to the 17.5% drop in wearing apparel production over the same period. In January, wearing apparel production fell 1.6%.