New Delhi: India’s industrial output shrank by 1.1% in August due to a poor show in the manufacturing, power generation and mining sectors, official government data released on Friday showed.

The Index of Industrial Production (IIP) had expanded by 4.8% in August 2018.

The manufacturing sector, which contributes over 77% to the IIP, showed a decline of 1.2% in output during August 2019 as against a growth of 5.2% in the same month of last year.

Month and Year Growth (in %) August 2018 4.3% September 2018 4.5% October 2018 8.1% November 2018 0.5% December 2018 2.4% January 2019 1.7% February 2019 0.1% March 2019 (-) 0.1% April 2019 3.4% May 2019 3.1% June 2019 2.0% July 2019 4.3% August 2019 (-) 1.1%

Source: Statistics Ministry

Electricity generation declined by 0.9% as against an expansion of 7.6% in the year ago month while the growth in the mining sector was flat at 0.1%.

The overall IIP growth during the April-August period was 2.4%, down from 5.3% in the corresponding period of the last fiscal.

Also read: India’s Factory Output Contracts for First Time in 21 Months

Other crucial data points include:

1) Capital goods output contracted by 21% in August against a contraction of 7.1% in the previous month.

2) Primary goods output grew 1.1% in August compared with 3.5% in July.

3) Infrastructure and construction goods output fell 4.5% compared with a 2.1% rise in July.

“Growth has been driven down sharply by consumer durables and capital goods. Quite clearly, both the drivers of the economy are quite down and need a major push,” Madan Sabnavis, chief economist at CARE Ratings, told The Economic Times.