CII President-Designate and Chairman of the Godrej Group Mr Adi B Godrej pushed for changing the Index of Industrial Production saying it is overweight on slow-growing industries and underweight of fast growing ones.

Asked if he thought the IIP numbers for December 2011 showed that the slow down is for real, he told reporters that “The real economy is doing quite well".

Mr Godrej said that "I think some of the indices need to be changed because the IPP indices still have overweight of slow-growing industries and underweight of fast growing industries adding generally, the economy was doing well.”

On reports that the rural demand is slowing down and if he saw such signs, Mr Godrej said that "In our businesses, we are seeing strong rural growth...most of our consumer businesses, especially fast moving consumer goods...strong rural growth.”

Industrial production grew by just 1.8% YoY in December 2011 due to contraction in mining and capital goods sectors and a lower manufacturing sector growth.

Factory output growth, as measured by the IIP, was at 8.1% in December 2010.

According to the official data released, output of the manufacturing sector, which constitutes over 75% of the index, rose at a lower rate of 1.8% in December, compared to a growth of 8.7% in the same month of 2010.

(Sourced from Indian Express)