Retail inflation slides to 4.7% in April; IIP grows just 1.1% in March

Grocery items put on display for sale at a market, in New Delhi. Photo used for representation purpose only.
| Photo Credit: Sushil Kumar Verma

India’s retail inflation slid to 4.7% in April, staying below the Reserve Bank of India’s 6% tolerance threshold for price rise for the second successive month, aided by the base effects from last April when it had hit a eight-year high of 7.8%.

Industrial output grew just 1.1% in March 2023, moderating sharply from 5.8% in February, with electricity, consumer durables and non-durables recording a contraction from a year ago, and manufacturing growing just 0.5%.

Mining output grew 6.8% in March, while capital goods and infrastructure/goods production rose 8.1% and 5.4%, respectively. Primary goods’ output growth, however, more than halved from 6.9% in February to 3.3% in March. Intermediate goods grew at a tepid 1.1% pace, but this constituted a three-month high after a growth of 0.5% in January and 0.7% in February.

Electricity generation contracted 1.6% in March, marking the first decline in at least a year. The dip in power output follows three months of 10%-plus growth from November 2022 and an 8.2% uptick this February.

For the full year 2022-23, India’s industrial production was up 5.1%, compared to a 11.4% rise in 2021-22. Electricity generation rose 8.9% in the year with mining and manufacturing, rising 5.8% and 4.5%, respectively.

Consumer durables’ output shrank for the fourth month in a row, with the decline widening to a three-month low of 8.4%. Consumer durables production had dropped 11.2% in December, 8.2% in January and 4.07% in February.