Industrial production increases by 3.6%

The volume of industrial production has increased by 3.6% in December, 2016 compared to the monthly average production of 2015.

Department of Census and Statistics (DCS) releasing its monthly Index of Industrial Production (IIP) for December 2016 said the Index of Industrial Production is an important indicator of economic performance and provides a measure of the short-term changes in the volume of industrial production over a given period of time. It can be used to identify the turning points in economic development at an early stage.

DCS Director General, Dr.A.J Satharasinghe said from October, 2016 the IIP is released on a monthly basis with a time lag of 45 days.The base year for the IIP compiled by DCS is 2015. IIP value of different base years cannot be compared.

According to the IIP values released, the volume of industrial production has increased by 3.6% in December, 2016 compared to the monthly average production of 2015. Manufacturing industries; Furniture (21.6%), Machinery and equipment (19.4%), Basic pharmaceutical product (14.5%) and other non-metallic mineral product (14.5%) showed remarkable increase in productions during month of December, 2016 compared to the average monthly production in 2015. The volume of food products has increased by 1.6 % in December.

The industries; Tobacco product (11.3%), Wood products (6.3%), Electrical equipment (6.3%) and Coke and refined petroleum products(4.9%), reported decrease in the volume of production in the month of December compared to the average monthly production of their industries in 2015.