Industrial production expanded by 4.9 per cent in April on improved performance by manufacturing and mining sectors as also a robust offtake of capital goods.

The industrial growth, based on Index of Industrial Production (IIP), was 3.2 per cent in April last year. The IIP for March this year has been revised upwards to 4.6 per cent from 4.4 per cent estimated earlier.

As per the data released by the Central Statistics Office (CSO), the manufacturing sector which accounts for over 77 per cent weight of the index, recorded a growth of 5.2 per cent in April this year, up from 2.9 per cent a year ago.

Similarly, the mining output grew by 5.1 per cent, compared to 3 per cent in the year ago period. As per the ‘use based’ classification, capital goods out, a barometer of investment, expanded by 13 per cent in April this year as against a decline of 4.8 per cent in the year-ago month. Consumer durable as well as consumer non-durable segments too posted higher growth on yearly basis.

“While the rise in consumer non-durable points the revival in rural sector, the increase in consumer durable posted a positive outlook for the urban centres,” said D S Rawat, secretary general of industry body Assocham. According to him, the rise in output of the capital goods sector is indicative of improvement in investment demand.

In terms of industries, 16 out of 23 groups in the manufacturing sector have shown positive growth in April this year on yearly basis. The industry group ‘manufacture of computer, electronic and optical products’ has shown the highest positive growth of 27.5 per cent followed by 21.9 per cent in ‘manufacture of motor vehicles, trailers and semi-trailers’ and 15.7 per cent in ‘manufacture of food products’.

On the other hand, the industry group ‘other manufacturing’ has shown the highest negative growth of 30.7 per cent followed by 13.4 per cent in ‘manufacture of wearing apparel’ and 10.3 per cent in ?printing and reproduction of recorded media’, CSO data said. The CSO data also revealed that infrastructure/ construction goods recorded a growth of 7.5 per cent, up from 4.7 per cent in the year ago period.