By IANS
New Delhi : India's industrial output was up 13.6 percent in April over the same month last year, thanks to a robust 15.1 percent growth in the manufacturing sub-sector, official data released Tuesday said, drawing applause from India Inc.
While the output of the mining sub-sector was up 3.4 percent during the month under review, that of electricity expanded by 8.7 percent, as per the quick estimates of the Index of Industrial Production of the Central Statistical Organisation.
"The revised annual growth for the period April-March 2006-07 now stands at 11.5 percent over the corresponding period of the pervious year," the organisation said in a statement.
India Inc was pleased with the performance with leading chambers saying the growth rates of manufacturing and electricity sectors during the last fiscal were beyond their expectations and were the main contributors to the strong overall economic growth of 9.4 percent.
The Confederation of Indian Industry (CII) however said the slowdown in some sectors could have been the result of recent monetary tightening measures of the Reserve Bank of India (RBI).
"While Industrial Production in April 2007 has generally shown an upward trend and has registered a growth higher than the corresponding period last year, the decline in growth of consumer durables, basic goods and capital goods is a slight cause for concern," the chamber said.
In a similar vein, the Associated Chambers of Commerce and Industry of India (Assocham) said the interest rate hike and double excise tax on some items had also restricted the growth to six key sectors of Indian industry.
"But increased investments, particularly by private equity holders as well as venture capitalists, in the recent months will show their impact in next few months," said chamber president Venugopal N. Dhoot.
The data released Tuesday showed that as many as 16 out of the 17 industry groups showed positive growth during April, with wood, furniture and fixtures logging the highest growth of 92.2 percent, followed by 55 percent for food products.