1. Performance of Industrial Production Index
The Industrial Production Index (IPI) in March 2008 gained 3.0% year-on-year, as compared with 6.5% increase in February 2008. The index in March was driven mainly by the Manufacturing (3.7%) and the Mining indices (1.8%). The Electricity index, however, dipped by 1.0%. The month-on-month index registered a 5.2% growth. The cumulative growth for the first quarter of 2008 continued to strengthen at 5.6% over the corresponding quarter of 2007.
2. Performance of Manufacturing Index
The Manufacturing index in March 2008 was 3.7% higher than March 2007 as compared with the increase of 6.7% in February 2008. As compared with the preceding month, the March index grew 4.5%. The growth for the first quarter of 2008 was 6.4% as compared with the corresponding period of last year.
The positive growth of the Manufacturing sector was contributed by the rise in the indices of 23 out of a total of 38 Manufacturing group (60.5%) covered in this compilation. The increase was contributed by the Television, radio, sound or video recording or reproducing apparatus (51.7%); Basic precious and non-ferrous metals (29.4%) and Glass and glass products (29.0%).
3. Performance of Mining Index
The index of the Mining sector rose 1.8% for March 2008 as compared with the same month of 2007. This was due to the increase in the index of crude oil of 3.6%. The tin and natural gas indices dropped by 6.9% and 0.9% respectively. As compared with February 2008, the Mining index went up 6.5%. The cumulative growth for the first quarter of 2008 was 3.7% as against the corresponding period of 2007. 4. Performance of Electricity Index
The Electricity index eased 1.0% in March 2008 as compared with a year earlier. The Electricity index posted a month-on-month increase of 8.0%. An increase of 4.5% was registered in the first quarter of 2008 as compared with the corresponding quarter a year ago. |
