Index of industrial production

A monthly index of the volume of output from India's mines, factories and power plants, published by the statistics ministry a few weeks after the month ends. Manufacturing carries most of the weight.

An index that rises from 150.0 in a month last year to 156.0 in the same month this year shows industrial output growth of 4.0%. Comparing the same month across years removes the seasonal pattern; comparing consecutive months doesn't.

Its use-based breakdown is the useful part. Capital goods tell one sector's story and infrastructure and construction goods another. Consumer durables and consumer non-durables each tell their own, and capital goods output moving ahead of the rest is an early sign of an investment cycle. Headline figures are revised as late data arrives, so the first print is provisional.

Read the use-based split, not the headline.