India's industrial output slows in March

Indications of a strong industrial recovery were belied with the growth in India's factory output slowing to 2.1 percent in March this year.

In the previous month, the country's industrial growth rate was 5 percent, and according to official figures the 2.8-percent expansion for the entire fiscal year was better than a contraction of 0.1 percent in 2013-14.

Official data on the Index of Industrial Production (IIP) released on Tuesday suggested that the main reason for the slowdown was a sharp decline in the growth of manufacturing, which has the maximum weight, from 5.2 percent in February to 2.2 percent in March.

Of the other two major sub-indices, the index for mining expanded by 0.9 percent against 1.9 percent in February, while that for electricity was up 2 percent for March, against 5.9 percent in the month before.

For the year as a whole, that is during 2014-15, the indices for manufacturing, mining and electricity were up by 2.3 percent, 1.4 percent and 8.4 percent, against (-)0.8 percent, (-)0.6 percent and 6.1 percent, respectively for the year before.