IIP grows at 2 per cent in April, slower than estimates

India's industrial production grew less than expected, at 2 per cent, in April from a year earlier, government data showed on Wednesday.

Analysts had expected output to grow 2.7 per cent annually.

Manufacturing, which constitutes about 76 per cent of industrial production, grew 2.8 per cent from a year earlier, the Central Statistics Office said.

Capital goods production, a barometer for investments in the economy, grew an annual 1 per cent from a year earlier, falling sharply from a reading of 6.9 per cent in the previous month.

The IIP figure for March was revised sharply upwards to 3.4 per cent from a provisional 2.5 per cent.

While the electricity sector grew by 0.7 per cent, the mining sector saw a de-growth at minus 3 per cent, the statement added.

In terms of industries, 13 out of the 22 industry groups in the manufacturing sector have shown positive growth during the month of April 2013 as compared to the corresponding month of the previous year, the statement said.

The index for consumer durables contracted for the fifth straight month at minus 8.3 per cent. The figure stood at minus 4.5 per cent in March.

Consumer non-durables, too, saw negative growth at minus 12.3 per cent.

Although the number points to an expansion in factory output in the first month of the fiscal year, the slow pace does not suggest a strong revival in Asia's third-largest economy after it posted a decade-low growth for the fiscal year to March 2013.

India's economy turned a corner in the quarter to March, growing 4.8 per cent on a year earlier, slightly faster than the upwardly revised 4.7 per cent growth seen in the previous three months.

With inputs from Reuters