India’s factory output drops to 0.4% in October, lowest in 13 months
The slowdown was partly attributed to fewer working days due to Dussehra, Diwali and Chhath.
| Photo Credit:
REUTERS/Sahiba Chawdhary
With a dip across sectors, factory output, measured by the Index of Industrial Production (IIP), in October slowed to 0.4 per cent, the Statistics Ministry reported on Monday. It is lowest in 13 months.
The headline number was 4.6 per cent in September.
“The slow growth in the month could be attributed to less number of working days because of a number of festivals in the month, including Dussehra, Dipawali and Chhath,” a statement by the Statistics Ministry said..
Sector-wise details
The latest data showed that the manufacturing sector’s output growth decelerated to 1.8 per cent in October 2025 from 4.4 per cent in the year-ago month. Mining production contracted by 1.8 per cent against a growth of 0.9 per cent recorded a year ago. Power production contracted by 6.9 per cent in October 2025, compared to a 2 per cent expansion in the year-ago period.
During the April-October period of FY26, the country’s industrial production growth decelerated to 2.7 per cent from 4 per cent in the same period a year ago.
Experts view
The latest headline number “underscoring sectoral imbalances even as infrastructure and capital goods provided resilience,” Rajeev Sharan, Head – Criteria, Model Development & Research, Brickwork Ratings said. Further, manufacturing remained modestly positive at 1.8 per cent, led by basic metals and motor vehicles, while mining and electricity contracted.
From a credit ratings standpoint, the cumulative April–October growth of 2.7 per cent supports a stable sovereign outlook, though sub-3 per cent trends warrant close monitoring. :Sustained policy momentum and diversification will be essential to safeguard macroeconomic resilience and investor confidence amid global headwinds,” he said.
Meanwhile, some economists called for waiting another month before reaching a conclusion. According to Aditi Nayar, Chief Economist at ICRA, the GST rate cut led to an upswing in manufacturing output in September 2025, followed by a respite in October 2025 due to the festival holidays. Besides, the adverse impact of US tariffs and penalties is likely to have affected production across some manufacturing sub-segments. “Given the base effects and the shifts in the festive calendar in 2025 vis-à-vis 2024, it would be more prudent to assess the average for October and November, once the data for the latter month becomes available,” she said.
Published on December 1, 2025
