Industrial output, as measured by the Index of Industrial Production, grew 4.9% in April 2026, slower than 5.8% in the same period last year, according to the new IIP series released on Monday (June 1, 2026). The IIP series, which till now had 2011-12 as its base year, has now been updated to 2022-23.
In the new series, the coverage has been broadened by incorporating gas supply and water supply, sewerage & waste management activities to the existing core categories of mining and quarrying, manufacturing, and electricity. Of the four sectoral indices, three grew at a slower pace and one shrunk in the reporting month on a year-on-year basis, with mining and quarrying output declining by over 5% in April 2026. Manufacturing sector output grew at 6.2% in the reporting month, slightly slower than the 6.3% in 2025.
Within the manufacturing sector, which constitutes about 75% of the IIP basket of goods, six industries contracted including major ones like manufacture of “coke and refined petroleum products”, which shrank 0.4%, and “wearing apparel” industry in which the output declined 7%. Manufacturing of wood products other than furniture shrank the most, with output dipping 12.5%.
The rest of the industry categories within the manufacturing sector grew, with electrical equipment industry output increasing 19.2% in April 2026.
Under use-based classification, the series classifies the industries into primary, capital goods, intermediate goods, infrastructure/construction goods, consumer durables and consumer non-durables.
Growth in three of the six categories slowed in April 2026 on a year-on-year basis. Primary goods, consumer durables, and consumer non-durables grew 0.8%, 4.3% and 2.8% respectively in April 2026, slower than the same month in 2025. Intermediate goods output grew faster by 0.19% clocking a growth rate of 7.7% in April 2026, as against the same month in the previous fiscal.
Capital goods and infrastructure goods output growth quickened to 16% and 7.1% respectively in the reporting month as against the same month in the previous fiscal.
The base years of major macroeconomic indicators, which had their base years in 2011-12, were revised in 2026 beginning with the GDP. IIP is the latest in the measures that have been revised to 2022-23 as the base year. The dataset will assume the index to be 100 as of 2022-23 and then calculate the growth rate of the index in subsequent years.
Besides adding new sectoral divisions, the new series also entails “improved granularity”. For instance, mining sector index will now include data classification for fuel minerals, metallic minerals, including rare earth minerals and non-metallic minerals, including minor minerals. Similarly, the electricity index has been classified into renewable and non-renewable sources.
The new basket of goods to calculate IIP consists of 1,042 products mapped to 463 item groups. The older series had just 839 items mapped to 407 item groups. Further, the weights provided to each sector and each industry within the manufacturing sector has been revised in line with the updated Gross Value Added (GVA) 2022-23 series.
The new series has also enabled users with a formula to link the older and new series of data to ensure comparability.
Published - June 01, 2026 06:55 pm IST
manufacturing and engineering / economy, business and finance
Source: The Hindu - India News
