Finance Ministry says analysing IIP, CPI data

NEW DELHI: With factory output contracting for the second month in a row and retail inflation at 16-month high, Finance Ministry today said it is analysing the data.

"The IIP and CPI data is out. We are going through it. We are analysing it," Economic Affairs Secretary Shaktikanta Das told reporters here.

According to CSO data released today, industrial production, measured in terms of Index of Industrial Production (IIP), contracted 1.3 per cent in December, as against a decline of 3.4 per cent in November.

Retail inflation as measured by the consumer price index (CPI) inched up to a 16-month high of 5.69 per cent in January compared with 5.61 per cent in December. It stood at 5.19 per cent in January 2015.

While factory output continued to fall primarily because of a decline in production of capital goods and manufactured products, retail inflation rose as a result of costlier food items.