Industrial production grows by 2.4% in January, beats expectations - NDTV

India's industrial production rose 2.4 per cent in January from a year earlier beating expectations, after unexpectedly shrinking 0.6 per cent in December, thanks to a pick-up in domestic demand and infrastructure output at a three-month high. An NDTV Profit poll had shown that the IIP likely grew by 1 per cent in January. The participants were Nomura (2.2 per cent), Barclays (1 per cent), Axis Bank (0.6 per cent), CARE (2.8 per cent), Credit Suisse (1.5 per cent), Deutsche Bank (2 per cent), HSBC (0.2 per cent), Moody's Analytics (1.5 per cent), RBS (0.3 per cent), Standard Chartered (-0.3 per cent), UBS (-0.7 per cent), and Yes Bank (1.1 per cent). The IIP stood at 181.8 in January 2013, stated a government release. The cumulative growth for the April-January 2012-13 period over the year-ago period was 1 per cent. The IIP for the mining, manufacturing and electricity sectors for the month of January 2013 were 134, 193.7 and 160.7, respectively, with corresponding growth rates of (-) 2.9 per cent, 2.7 per cent and 6.4 per cent over the year-ago period. In terms of industries, 11 out of the 22 industry groups in the manufacturing sector grew in January 2013. "It is difficult to draw convincing trends from this numbers because they have been volatile. We know from data on the ground that the consumption story is pretty weak right now. It is an encouraging headline number, but nothing to get excited about," Jyotinder Kaur, economist at HDFC Bank, told NDTV Profit. Output in the country's eight key infrastructure industries, also known as the core sector and accounting for almost 40 per cent of factory production, grew an annual 3.9 per cent in January, its fastest in three months. Production in four of those eight industries - coal, steel, electricity and refinery products, which account for a little over a fourth of the IIP - rose in January and likely had a bearing on overall ind ustrial production. HSBC manufacturing PMI surveys also showed domestic orders have boosted Indian factory activity so far this year. To support growth, the Indian government last week unveiled a surge in spending - despite expectations of an austere budget to shore up its finances - and imposed new taxes on the rich and large companies. The Reserve Bank of India had cut its key policy rate for the first time in nine months in January but said any further policy easing would depend on how inflation and the fiscal deficit is controlled. "The IIP data is much higher than our estimates. Consumer (non-durable) goods is a blowout number, growing over 5 per cent against our expectations of flat growth and it has a big weightage in IIP. The other numbers are in line," said Saugata Bhattacharya, senior vice president-business and economic research, Axis Bank. With inputs from Reuters via Business - Google News http://news.google.com/news/url?sa=t&fd=R&usg=AFQjCNEps2OUmM1PsCj-E5PEFIyzI_5LnQ&url=http://profit.ndtv.com/news/economy/article-industrial-production-grows-by-2-4-in-january-beats-expectations-319334

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