The Department of Census and Statistics compiles number of economic indicators including IIP. The index, IIP is a vital measurement of identifying the drivers of economic growth and evaluating economic performance of the country and it is based on volume of production of manufacturing industries.

The manufacturing industries; ‘Manufacture of chemicals and chemical products’, ‘Manufacture of fabricated metal products’, and ‘Manufacture of coke and refined petroleum products’ have shown remarkable increases of 20.9%, 19.5% and 13.5% respectively in their volume of production during the month of May, 2018 compared to that of May, 2017. The volume of food products in May, 2018 has increased by 2.9% compared to the same month in previous year.

However, manufacturing industries: Volume of ‘Manufacture of electrical equipment’, ‘Manufacture of machinery and equipment’ and ‘Manufacture of paper and paper products’ have reported decreases by 24.6%, 13.9% and 12.8% respectively during this period. The DCS stated that further details on monthly IIP of May, 2018 have been published in its website: (www.statistics.gov.lk).