NEW DELHI (Reuters) -India’s industrial output rose 5.2% year-on-year in May, data from the Ministry of Statistics showed on Wednesday.
Analysts in a Reuters poll had forecast an expansion of 4.8%. Industrial output for April was revised to 4.5% from 4.2%.
Manufacturing, which accounts for about 17% of the Indian economy, rose 5.7% year-on-year in May from a revised 5.2% year-on-year growth recorded in April.
Electricity generation during May rose 0.9% over the same period a year earlier, while mining activities increased 6.4%, the data showed.
In April, electricity generation fell 1.1%, and mining activities increased 5.1%.
Infrastructure or construction goods grew 14% year-on-year during the month from a revised 15% year-on-year growth in April. Capital goods grew 8.2% compared to a year earlier.
Consumer durables output grew 1.1% year-on-year in May from a revised year-on-year decline of 2.5% in the previous month. Consumer non-durables showed a 7.6% year-on-year growth, compared to a revised 11% growth in April.
“Growth in fast moving consumer goods can be attributed to some revival in rural demand post-rabi harvest,” said Madan Sabnavis, an economist at Bank of Baroda, referring to crops sown in winter.
The year-on-year performance of high frequency indicators for freight and traffic movement dipped in June compared to May, but electricity generation, coal output, and finished steel consumption improved, said Aditi Nayar, an economist at ICRA.
“Based on these trends, ICRA expects the year-on-year IIP (Index of Industrial Production) growth to moderate to about 3-4% in June, Nayar said.
(Reporting by Nikunj Ohri and Shivangi Acharya; Editing by Christina Fincher and Emma Rumney)
