A new series of index of industrial production, which is a prime indicator of economic development, is likely to be released by the end of this year, a top government official said Friday. ?The new series of IIP with base year 2004-05 is expected to be released by December,” MC Singhi, senior economic advisor in industry ministry said.
Trial runs for the new IIP series are on. It is unlikely there will be any major change in industrial output numbers under the new series, Singhi said. India’s industrial output will continue to be buoyant in the rest of 2010-11 (April-March), he said. Singhi, however, did not say what industrial output numbers are expected to be in coming months.
The base year of IIP, which began in 1937, was revised in 1946, 1951, 1956, 1960, 1970 and 1980-81.
The current IIP series has 1993-94 as base year and has 543 items compared with 352 items in the previous 1980-81 series. The new series is likely to add 150 more items. The 1993-94 IIP series has three broad sectors ? manufacturing, mining, electricity. Manufacturing has largest number of items at 478 followed by mining at 64 and electricity at one. Manufacturing has 79.36 weight on the index, mining 10.47 and electricity 10.17.
The new series with 2004-05 base year is likely to include new items such as mobile phones, liquid crystal display televisions, computers and laptops and several chemicals and pharmaceuticals that were not manufactured in the country when the base year was revised in 1993-94, Singhi said.
Earlier this month, government released new series for wholesale price index with base year 2004-05. WPI for August was the first inflation number to be released under the new series. Gross domestic product figures, too, are now released under the new series with base year 2004-05.
