Manufacturing Sector to Slow Down By 10-30 percent

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Dec. 10 – India’s labor intensive manufacturing sector has slowed down and is expected to cut production by 10-30 percent over the next three months. A Federation of Indian Chambers of Commerce and Industry (FICCI) survey of 200 large and SME manufacturers released yesterday states that the leather, metals and textile industries are to be most affected, with job losses of 10-30 percent expected across the board. Due to cuts in production exports will also be affected by approximately 10-20 percent, with a 60 percent drop in leather exports expected the survey said.

The textiles, leather and metal sectors are expected to clock negative growth of 3.9 percent, 13 percent and 30 percent respectively, the report said. While metal products reported a negative growth of 17 percent since August, textile and the leather segment slipped in the red in September, the Times of India said.

While the US$4 billion economy stimulus package announced by the union government last Sunday and a cut of 4 percent in excise duties is expected to resuscitate the manufacturing sector, industry experts are afraid the sector will show signs of growth only after the first quarter next year.