What’s antacid got to do with India’s IIP growth?

NEW DELHI: The Index of Industrial Production (IIP) rose 7.1 per cent in December, lower than the 17-month high in November at 8.4 per cent.

What didn't change was a particular sector that made the biggest contribution to the IIP growth—digestive enzymes, antacids, and proton pump inhibitors (PPIs), which continue to drive growth in India's industrial output for several months now.

Digestive enzymes, antacids, and PPIs are used to cure acidity, heartburn and indigestion. They led the dominant item group of five that contributed positively to the overall IIP growth.


Digestive enzymes and antacids, which have a weight of just 0.22%, contributed 2.2520 percentage points to the growth, well ahead of cement with 2.16% weight which contributed 0.4127 percentage points and electricity which has a weight of 7.99% and contributed 0.4010 percentage points.

This is not the first time the item group has pushed up the IIP. It has been contributing majorly to the IIP growth for the past many months. In November, it contributed 2.5497 percentage points to the growth. In October, its contribution to IIP growth was 1.37 percentage points. The item group had pushed up industrial production in May 2017 by 2.4 percentage points.

Does it mean more Indians opt for eating out or order food from home instead of eating home-cooked less-spicy food? Or is it just a statistical anomaly? The mystery continues.