Industrial production up by 13.6 % in April, 2007

New Delhi, June 12 (UNI) The growth rate in the country's industrial production slowed down in April to 13.6 per cent compared to the same month last year, after having hit a record 14.5 per cent in March this year.

A tighter monetary policy adopted by the Reserve Bank saw interest rates moving Northwards and demand for costlier durables like cars as well as investment in new industries slackening.

The April Industrial growth figure released by the Central Statistical Organisation, was a result of the robust growth of the manufacturing sector which rose by 15.1 per cent from a year earlier, the fastest pace since November last year. Electricity production, which has shown steady improvement, registered a growth rate of 8.7 per cent.

Production of consumer goods almost doubled to 17.7 per cent in April from the previous month, showing unabated demand for goods such as televisions and washing machines.

However, vital sectors like mining grew at a snail's pace.

Mining grew by 3.4 per cent in April this year. Officials said that a perusal of yesterday's figures for six core infrastructure industries showed that mining, especially coal sector ''was not doing as well as we would like it to do.'' Industrial production grew by an average of 11.2 per cent growth in April-March 2006-07. Manufacturing grew by 2.5 per cent during this period, while electricity by 7.2 per cent. Mining grew by 5.3 per cent during this period.

The Reserve Bank of India has raised its key rates nine times since October 2004 to slow inflation in one of the fastest growing economy. It also raised the Cash Reserve Ratio three times to 6.5 per cent to mop up funds and curb credit growth, which has been growing at more than 30 per cent.

Economists feared that the high rate of industrial growth could see over heating in the economy of which the higher inflation figures were an indicator. The Central Bank is keeping an eye on both the inflation and industrial production figures while formulating its monetary policy.

The Sectoral growth rates in April 2007 over April 2006 are 8 per cent in Basic goods, 17.7 per cent in Capital goods and 12.6 per cent in Intermediate goods. The Consumer durables and Consumer non-durables have recorded growth of 5.3 per cent and 21.9 per cent respectively, with the overall growth in Consumer goods being 17.7 per cent.

UNI