Preview: industrial production up 2.8%
India's industrial production likely grew at a steady but slow annual pace in September, lifted by infrastructure output, in what is likely to be further evidence of a sluggish economy, a Reuters poll showed.
The index of industrial production (IIP), which measures the output at factories, mines and utilities, rose an annual 2.8 percent in September, the fastest since February, according to a survey of 25 economists.
That would be only slightly better than 2.7 percent in August, less than a third of the rates of over 9 percent clocked in 2010 and well off the double-digit growth seen during the boom times before the global financial crisis hit in 2008.
It would also show much slower growth than Asian rival China, which clocked a 9.2 percent industrial output annual growth rate in September and is expected to do even a bit better in October.
Factory output accounts for a little more than 15 percent of India's economy, which has grown at annual rates of 5 to 5.5 percent each quarter since the start of the year, the slowest rates in nearly three years.
There seems to be some stabilisation, but it's coming at a very low level and while there are encouraging signs of some activity in infrastructure, a lot of ground needs to be covered in other aspects, said Jyotinder Kaur, economist at HDFC Bank.
Forecasts ranged from 1.6 percent to 4.1 percent, the narrowest in at least two years of polls, suggesting economists are more certain about a relatively weak outcome.
Earlier this year,
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