India’s industrial output grows 8% in August as factories accelerate

India’s industrial production increased 8% in August compared with the same month a year earlier, according to figures released by the National Statistics Office on Monday, 28 September. Reuters reported that the result beat the 6.5% growth economists had expected in its poll. The reading follows a revised 7.4% rise in July, though monthly and annual comparisons measure different things.

Manufacturing output grew 9% year on year, and electricity generation climbed 12.3%. Mining moved the other way, contracting 5.6%. Consumer durables, a category including cars and phones, rose 11.1%, while capital goods increased 16.9%. The government’s release says industrial output for April through August grew 6.7% from a year earlier. Those components show that the headline gain was broad in some sectors but not universal.

The Indian Express noted that output was lower than in July even while the annual growth rate strengthened, in part because of the comparison with a weaker period last year. That makes the 8% figure a useful measure of year-on-year expansion, but not proof that every industry is accelerating each month. For policymakers and businesses, the split between stronger factories and electricity production and weaker mining is as important as the headline number.