Good news is that bad news is not continuing: Montek Singh Ahluwalia on IIP data

NEW DELHI: Taking some solace from meagre growth in industrial output in May, as compared to contraction in the April, Planning Commission today said that the bad news in not continuing.

"Good news is that bad news is not continuing," Planning Commission Deputy Chairman Montek Singh Ahluwalia said while commenting on slight improvement in industrial growth numbers which went into positive territory at 2.4 per cent in May as against negative growth of 0.9 per cent in April.

Index of Industrial Production ( IIP) numbers, he added, "remain weak but are better than previous month. Such growth rates however are not acceptable. By October... we will be able to tell if economy is turning around."

Elaborating further, he said, "when investment drops, there is a stock adjustment process...that adjustment is happening."

Most of the efforts of the government in the coming days, Ahluwalia said, would be on promoting investment in the infrastructure sector.

The Commission, he further said, "will review infrastructure sector performance for the fist quarter (April-June) ...depending on review...(government) will take corrective actions."

On the economic growth numbers for the April-June quarter, he said, "IIP numbers do not signal robust recovery ... (and it will be) too early to say what kind of impact it will have on first quarter (economic growth) numbers."