Industry grows by robust 10.3 pc in October

Industry grew by a robust 10.3 per cent in October against a paltry 0.1 per cent a year ago, powered by manufacturing, particularly consumer durables, which was driven by the stimulus packages.

The strong industrial production data came days after better-than-expected economic growth of 7.9 per cent in the second quarter of this fiscal, reflecting that the economy would sustain the recovery provided agriculture does not slide too much.

For the first seven months of this fiscal, industry expanded by 7.1 per cent against 4.3 per cent a year ago. Manufacturing, which has almost 80 per cent weight in the Index of Industrial Production, grew by 11.1 per cent againstu00a0 (-)0.6 per cent a year ago, when the industry faced the full impact of the world financial and economic crisis after the collapse of US financial services icon Lehman Brothers.

Within manufacturing, consumer durables production expanded by 21 per cent in October against (-)1.6 per cent a year ago. Mining production grew by 8.2 per cent in the month against 3.2 per cent and electricity generation expanded by 4.7 per cent compared to 4.4 per cent.

Industrial growth for September was revised to 9.6 per cent from provisional estimate of 9.1 per cent.