Since the Index of Industrial Production (IIP) reported for the years 2017 and 2016 were 107.7 and 101.6 respectively, the volume of industrial production has increased by 6.0% in the month of September, 2017 compared to the same month in 2016, issuing a communique Director General of Department of Census and Statistics (DCS), Dr. A.J. Satharasinghe has said.

The communique further pointed out that manufacturing industries; ‘Fabricated Metal Products’, ‘Basic metal products’ and ‘Printing and reproduction of recorded media’ have shown remarkable increases of 26.1%, 19.7% and 16.4% respectively in their volume of production during the month of September, 2017 compared to that of September, 2016. The volume of food products has increased by 7.3%.

However, manufacturing industries; Volume of ‘Furniture’, ‘Beverages’ and ‘Other manufacturing’ reported decreases by 14.9%, 13.9% and 12.7% respectively during this period. The industrial production of the manufacturing sector for the third quarter of 2017 has increased by 3.9% compared to the same quarter in 2016, it added.

The Department of Census and Statistics compiles number of economic indicators including IIP. Government as well as industries use this economic data to understand the trends and patterns in Sri Lankan economy, identify the drivers of economic growth, evaluate economic performance and for the formulation and assessment of economic policies. IIP conveys the status of production in the industrial sector of an economy in a given period of time, in comparison with a fixed reference point in the past. It reveals the short term changes of the industrial sector.