New Delhi, Apr 9 (PTI) India's factory output registered a negative growth of 1.2 per cent in February as demand appeared to collapse -- evident from inflation falling to a new 30-year low.
Wholesale prices-based inflation for the week ending March 28 stood at 0.26 per cent, which economists said was a result of a crisis in demand and crisis of confidence.
The contraction in industrial output also showed that the three stimulus packages announced since December 2008 haven't as yet delivered the desired results. The Index of Industrial Production numbers for the comparable period a year ago was 9.5 per cent.
Industrial growth for the period from April-February'09 worked out to just 2.8 per cent, against a whopping 8.8 per cent a year earlier.
A small ray of hope, however, was that the government revised the IIP numbers for January from the provisional minus 0.5 per cent to a positive 0.39 per cent.
Major heads under the IIP like manufacturing and mining and sub-categories like basic and intermediate items also registered a fall in February, prompting demand for rate cuts by RBI in its annual monetary policy later this month.
Manufacturing, constituting around 80 per cent in the IIP, declined 1.4 per cent in February compared to 9.6 per cent growth a year ago.
PTI
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