New Delhi: India’s factory output recorded a steep drop in April 2020 as the COVID-19 lockdown put a hold on most industrial production for that month.Along with the release of the data on Friday evening, the government also issued a disclaimer noting that it would not be appropriate to compare the industrial output numbers with previous months.According to the government data, the ‘Index of Industrial Production (IIP)’ contracted by 55.5% on a y-o-y basis in April 2020. Most estimates had indicated that IIP would contract by 45% in April.In its press release, the National Statistical Office (NSO) did not provide, as it usually does, the year-on-year change. It only provided the index numbers (the change has therefore been calculated by The Wire).Also read: India’s Factory Output Contracted by 16.7% in March 2020The reason for this, the NSO notes, is because the lockdown impacted items produced in April 2020, with a number of responding units even reporting nil production.“To illustrate, the Department for Promotion of Industry and Internal Trade is the largest source agency of IIP for the manufacturing sector, contributing to an overall weight of 47.5% in the General IIP. Data receipt from the responding units is around 61% for the month of April, 2020, of which 50% have reported zero production, in view of the lockdown,” the government press release noted.“Consequently, it is not appropriate to compare the IIP of April, 2020 with earlier months and users may like to observe the changes in IIP in the following months,” it added.Manufacturing, which accounts for 78% of the IIP, came to a halt in April as output appears to have contracted by 64.2%.Mining activity also dropped by 27.4%. On the other hand, electricity generation declined by a cool 22%.Industrial output for FY’20 had contracted by 0.7% compared with a growth rate of 3.8% in FY’19, official data released last month had shown.