India’s industrial production grew 8% in August 2026, although textile and wearing-apparel manufacturing moved in opposite directions. Textile production increased 13.1% year-on-year (YoY), while wearing-apparel output declined 7.4%, according to data released by the Ministry of Statistics and Programme Implementation (MoSPI).
Overall Index of Industrial Production (IIP) growth accelerated from 6.7% in July to 8% in August. According to the data, 18 of the 23 manufacturing industry groups recorded YoY growth during the month.
Meanwhile, textile production recorded cumulative growth of 11.9% during April-August 2026-27. In contrast, wearing-apparel production declined 5.6% during the same period.
Textiles and wearing apparel have weights of 3.27 and 1.97, respectively, in the IIP, while manufacturing accounts for 76.062 points of the index.
According to the monthly IIP data, wearing-apparel production has remained volatile over the past year. Output declined 2% in September 2025 and 7.3% in October before rising 6.7% in November and more than 17% in December.
However, production fell 8.6% in January 2026 and 3.4% in February. It recovered 4.8% in March, before declining more than 10% in April. Output then increased 3.6% in May and 2.3% in June, but fell 2.3% in July and 7.4% in August.
A Sakthivel, Chairman, Apparel Export Promotion Council (AEPC), stated the two IIP categories represent different stages of production, textiles largely cover upstream products such as yarn and fabric, whereas wearing apparel is more directly linked to export orders, buyer inventories and global retail demand.
He added that rising yarn prices, geopolitical developments and trade uncertainties could affect apparel production more quickly because of its dependence on external demand.
Apparel exports declined 9.1 % during April-August 2026-27. However, Sakthivel noted that exporters were focusing on market diversification and new free trade agreements, while upcoming festive and Christmas orders could support demand.
Sharad Saraf, CMD of Technocraft Industries, also noted the slowdown as cyclical and expected manufacturing growth to improve within two to three months. He said the company was currently working on Christmas orders.
