IIP Grows 8.0% in August 2026 on Manufacturing and Power

The correct answer is 8.0 per cent. Factory output measured by the Index of Industrial Production rose at that rate in August 2026 over the same month a year earlier, helped by manufacturing and by a strong showing from electricity and gas supply. The option of 6.7 per cent is wrong because that was the quick estimate for the previous month, July 2026, and is given only for comparison. The option of 5.4 per cent is wrong because no such headline rate was reported for the month under discussion. The option of 9.6 per cent is wrong as well; the figure closest to it in the release is the manufacturing sector's own growth rate, which was 9.0 per cent and applies to one sector rather than to the overall index.

The correct answer is mining and quarrying. It was the only one of the four sectors to shrink during the month, falling 5.6 per cent, and its index stood at 85.7, the lowest of the four. Manufacturing is wrong because it grew 9.0 per cent and was in fact the largest contributor to the headline number, taking its index to 126.6. Electricity and gas supply is wrong because it was the fastest growing sector of the month at 12.3 per cent, with an index of 133.9. Water supply, sewerage and waste management is wrong because it also grew, by 6.3 per cent, reaching an index of 147.6, the highest sectoral index value reported for the month. Mining was thus the only drag on an otherwise broad based month, one in which eighteen of the twenty three manufacturing industry groups at the two digit level of the national industrial classification registered positive growth over the same month a year earlier.

The correct answer is capital goods, which grew 16.9 per cent, the highest among the use-based categories for the month. Capital goods cover machinery and equipment used to produce other goods, so the rate is read as a sign of investment demand. Primary goods is wrong because that category grew only 3.5 per cent, the second slowest of the six. Consumer non-durables is wrong because it was the slowest of all at 2.1 per cent. Infrastructure and construction goods is wrong because it grew 6.4 per cent, well below the leader. Intermediate goods at 13.7 per cent and consumer durables at 11.1 per cent came next after capital goods, and these three together were named the top contributors to the month's overall growth.