Manufacturing growth may moderate in December quarter: FICCI

NEW DELHI: The country's manufacturing sector is likely to witness a moderate growth in the third quarter of this fiscal, according to a FICCI survey.

Showing signs of recovery, industrial production grew at a three-month high of 2.5 per cent in September on account of better mining and manufacturing output.

The manufacturing output, which constitutes over 75 per cent of the index, grew by 2.5 per cent in September, compared to 1.4 per cent in the same month a year ago.

"The outlook on the basis of FICCI Manufacturing Survey for Q3 of 2014-15 is less optimistic than Q2 of 2014-15 for the manufacturing sector as the proportion of respondents expecting higher production vis-a-vis last year has fallen to 52 per cent in Q3 from 62 per cent in Q2," the industry body said in its report.

However, the growth is likely to be more broad based during the third quarter as most of the sectors are expecting improvement in production, it said.

The survey gauges the expectations of manufacturers for the October-December period for thirteen major sectors namely textiles, capital goods, metals, chemicals, cement and ceramics, electronics, auto components, leather & footwear, machine tools, Food & FMCG, tyre, paper and textiles machinery.

Responses have been drawn from 392 manufacturing units from both large and SME segments with a combined annual turnover of over Rs 4 lakh crore.