New Delhi, Dec 14 (KNN) Bouncing up from a four-month low, the IIP for October, 2015, the latest month for which data has been recently released, increased by 9.8 percent versus 3.6 percent achieved during October, 2014.  The growth in index of industrial production (IIP) was surely fuelled by the pre-Diwali sale as evidenced by the 42% growth in Consumer Durables which of course demonstrate a higher purchasing power of the Consumer over the previous year, when growth in consumer durables was only 8.4% during October, 2014.
  
The manufacturing sector, a key indicator of economic activity, grew 10.6 per cent year-on-year in October against 2.6 % achieved during the year 2014. Again, this achievement was a result of secular growth against all major sectors – capital goods, intermediate goods and consumer non- durables.
 
While, of course it may be a point of rejoice for the MSME manufacturers, the drop in power generation from 11% previous year to 9% is an issue of concern. However, all other sectors including mining up at 4.7 percent, have pitched a higher growth.
 
Experts also opine that the spike in growth may largely be due to the pre-Diwali sale and what happens during November and December need to be watched. While the growth in capital goods output from 10% to 16% year on year surely indicates some growth in investments, the high burden of non- performing assets on Banks may decelerate release of Bank credits, which is already at near stagnation level for the manufacturing sector. (KNN Bureau)