India’s industrial production surged by 5.2 per cent in February, primarily propelled by a robust performance in the manufacturing sector, signalling positive momentum for the nation’s economic landscape.
Photograph: Amit Dave/Reuters
Key Points
- India’s industrial production grew by 5.2 per cent in February, driven mainly by improved manufacturing output.
- The manufacturing sector’s output growth accelerated to 6 per cent in February 2026, a notable increase from the previous year.
- Key contributors to manufacturing growth include basic metals, motor vehicles, and machinery and equipment.
- Mining production also saw a slight improvement, growing by 3.1 per cent.
- ICRA forecasts a deceleration in IIP growth to 3-4 per cent in March 2026 due to the West Asia crisis and weaker electricity performance.
India’s industrial production grew 5.2 per cent in February, mainly due to an improvement in manufacturing output, according to official data released on Monday.
The factory output, measured in terms of the Index of Industrial Production (IIP), expanded by 2.7 per cent in February 2025, an official statement said.
Revised January Data and Sectoral Performance
The National Statistics Office (NSO) revised the industrial production growth for January 2026 to 5.1 per cent from the provisional estimate of 4.8 per cent released earlier this month.
NSO data further showed that the manufacturing sector’s output growth accelerated to 6 per cent in February 2026 compared to 2.8 per cent in the year-ago month.
Mining production growth slightly improved to 3.1 per cent compared to 1.6 per cent recorded a year ago.
Power generation growth stood at 2.3 per cent in February compared to 3.6 per cent expansion in the year-ago period.
Overall Growth and Key Contributors
During the April-February period of FY26, the country’s industrial production growth remained flat year-on-year at 4.1 per cent.
Within the manufacturing sector, 14 out of 23 industry groups have recorded a positive growth in February 2026 compared to a year ago.
The top three positive contributors for February 2026 are manufacture of basic metals (13.2 per cent), manufacture of motor vehicles, trailers and semi-trailers (14.9 per cent) and manufacture of machinery and equipment (10.2 per cent).
Use-Based Classification and Future Outlook
The corresponding growth rates of IIP, as per use-based classification in February 2026 over February 2025, are 1.8 per cent in Primary goods, 12.5 per cent in capital goods, 7.7 per cent in intermediate goods, 11.2 per cent in infrastructure/ construction goods, 7.3 per cent in consumer durables and (-) 0.6 per cent in consumer non-durables.
In the industry group ‘Manufacture of basic metals’, item groups ‘MS slabs’, ‘Flat products of Alloy Steel’ and ‘Pipes and tubes of Steel’ have shown significant contribution to growth.
Aditi Nayar, Chief Economist, Head – Research & Outreach, Icra, said, “ICRA expects the IIP growth to decelerate to 3-4 per cent in March 2026, amid the unfolding adverse impact of the West Asia crisis on some manufacturing segments, both through the price and availability channels, as well as weaker electricity performance in the month”.
