In an indication that the economy is showing no signs of bottoming out, the latest CII ASCON survey reveals that the number of sectors reporting low growth in January-March 2013 quarter of current year has increased significantly over the corresponding period of last year suggesting that the slowdown has taken a firm grip on the economy.
The survey, which tracks the growth of industrial sector on a quarterly basis, based on feedback received from sectoral industry associations, shows that out of 112 sectors surveyed, the percentage of sectors reporting ‘excellent’ growth (>20 %) and ‘high’ growth (10-20) % performance has come down to 2.7% and 14.3 % respectively in the current quarter (January-March 2013) from 6.1 % and 23.5 % in the same quarter last year. While the proportion of sectors reporting ‘negative’ growth(<0)% has remained relatively unchanged at 18.3% from 17.9 same quarter last year, the number of sectors reporting ‘low’ growth has increased to 65.2% in the current quarter from 52.2% in the same quarter in the previous year.