Today, the Reserve Bank released the results of its 60th round of the quarterly Order Books, Inventories and Capacity Utilisation Survey (OBICUS) conducted during Q4:2022-23 covering 762 manufacturing companies. The survey¹ provides a snapshot of demand conditions in India’s manufacturing sector during October-December 2022.

Highlights:

• At the aggregate level, capacity utilisation (CU) in the manufacturing sector improved further to 74.3 per cent in Q3:2022-23 from 74.0 per cent recorded in the previous quarter (Chart 1 and Table 1). The seasonally adjusted CU for Q3:2022-23, however, declined by 40 basis points (bps) during the quarter and stood at 74.1 per cent in Q3:2022-23.

• New orders received by manufacturing companies in Q3:2022-23 were close to their level in the previous quarter but exceeded those received in the corresponding quarter a year ago; the pace of annual growth in new orders has moderated for the second consecutive quarter (Chart 2 and Table 2A).

• The ratios of both raw material inventory (RMI) and finished goods inventory (FGI) to sales remained close to their level in the previous quarter (Chart 3 and Table 3A).

Note- Please see the excel file for time series data.

ANNEX 1: Data Tables

Note: The computations of order book growths and inventory to sales ratios are based on methodology given in the RBI press release dated October 8, 2021 (link: /en/web/rbi/-/publications/obicus-survey-on-the-manufacturing-sector-for-q1-2021-22-20650) and not on the basis of averages given in the above tables.

¹ The survey responses are voluntary and the results reflect the views of the respondents, which are not necessarily shared by the Reserve Bank. Results of the previous survey round were released on the Bank’s website on February 08, 2023.