India’s industrial output eased to a three-month low in January 2026, with the Index of Industrial Production (IIP) rising 4.8% year‑on‑year, official data from the National Statistics Office showed. The slowdown, below economists’ expectations of 6.5% and well under December’s revised 8.0% expansion, was driven by weaker manufacturing activity and a contraction in fast‑moving consumer goods production.
Manufacturing, which makes up roughly 78% of the IIP, grew 4.8% in January — a sharp deceleration from December’s revised 8.4% increase. Electricity generation rose 5.1%, down from a 6.3% gain a month earlier, while mining output eased to 4.3% from a revised 6.9% in December.
Under the use‑based classification, capital goods output, a common proxy for investment demand, increased 4.3% in January, slowing significantly from a revised 8.3% growth in December. Consumer durables — items such as cars and mobile phones — grew 6.3%, versus a revised 12.4% in the previous month. By contrast, consumer non‑durables, which include food products and toiletries, contracted 2.7% in January after an 8.5% expansion in December, signalling weakness in mass consumption segments.
Not all segments cooled: infrastructure and construction goods posted robust growth of 13.7% year‑on‑year, and intermediate goods rose 6.0%, supporting pockets of industrial strength. For the April–January period of fiscal 2025–26, industrial output expanded 4.0%, slightly below the 4.2% growth recorded in the same period a year earlier.
The January reading points to some loss of momentum in India’s industrial cycle at the start of the calendar year, with softer investment proxies and a dip in consumer non‑durables likely to draw attention from policymakers and markets monitoring growth prospects.
Original Source: https://www.firstpost.com/business/indias-industrial-output-growth-slows-to-4-8-in-january-misses-estimates-13985456.html
Category: India
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Publish Date: 2026-03-02 17:06:00
