UN, Sep 7 (KNN) India is on the path to becoming a pivot for high-techworld manufacturing even as world manufacturing growth is expected to remain low in 2016 due to the general uncertainty in the global economy, said an UN report.

The quarterly 'World Manufacturing Production report', published by the UN Industrial Development Organisation (UNIDO) said world manufacturing output is expected to increase by only 2.8 per cent in 2016.

However, the report also said that India's manufacturing output, which achieved impressive growth rates in the last quarters,  experienced a second slight decline in a row, this time by 0.7 per cent, but the prospects for India's manufacturing are conclusive.

By the end of 2016, the growth rate performance of China, the world’s largest manufacturer, is likely to further decline from last year’s 7.1 per cent to to 6.5 per cent this year. Similarly, downward growth rate trends are expected in Japan, Europe, and the United States, it said.

According to UNIDO, lower industrial growth rates pose a challenge for the implementation of Sustainable Development Goal 9, which aims to significantly raise the share of manufacturing in the economies of developing countries.

It further said that Asian countries largely maintained higher growth rates. Manufacturing output rose by 5.6 per cent in Indonesia, 3.9 per cent in Malaysia and 13.5 per cent in Viet Nam.

The report presents the expected growth estimates of world manufacturing value added (MVA) for the year 2016 and the observed growth rates for the second quarter of 2016. (KNN Bureau)