IIP reverses trend, grows 2.4% after 2-month slump - Financial Express

Industrial production rose 2.4% in January after two straight months of decline largely on the back of manufacturing, which expanded for the first time since October, and power generation hitting this fiscal's peak, according to data released by the Central Statistics Office (CSO) on Tuesday. Policymakers were quick to point towards early signs of a revival in the economy but analysts were cautious, stating that the industrial growth was on a low base (just 1% expansion in January 2012) and only a broad-based expansion in February on a relatively higher base of 4.2% would determine if factory sluggishness has indeed bottomed out. Manufacturing, which accounts for around 75% of the Index of Industrial Production (IIP), grew 2.7% in January, compared with 1.1% a year earlier, and the increase in power generation hit 6.4% from 3.2% a year ago. Department of economic affairs secretary Arvind Mayaram said, "There were signs that economic slowdown is bottoming out." He added that there was scope for further monetary easing by the Reserve Bank of India (RBI) to stimulate growth. The CSO also revised up industrial production in December marginally to a dip of 0.5% from the 0.6% contraction announced earlier. The positive January data helped push up the IIP growth to 1% during the April-January period, compared with 3.4% a year before. However, compounding worries for policymakers, consumer inflation hit a record 10.91% in February from 10.79% in the previous month, with core retail inflation inching up to 8.4% last month after remaining in the ... contd. via Business - Google News http://news.google.com/news/url?sa=t&fd=R&usg=AFQjCNHHf9rgo8Lp1yc7GbN2ct1BryYdFA&url=http://www.financialexpress.com/news/iip-reverses-trend-grows-2.4-after-2month-slump/1087063

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