India Industrial Output Growth Rebounds

(RTTNews) - India's industrial production rebounded the most in two years in November on strong growth in manufacturing and mining sectors, official data revealed on Monday.

Industrial production registered an annual growth of 6.7 percent in November, following October's 0.5 percent increase, the Ministry of Statistics and Programme Implementation reported.

This was the fastest growth in two years and also came in much better than economists' forecast of 2.5 percent.

Driven by the manufacture of basic metals and fabricated metal products, pharmaceuticals and motor vehicles, manufacturing output growth accelerated to 8.0 percent from 2.0 percent in the previous month.

Mining grew 5.4 percent, reversing October's 1.8 percent fall. The rebound reflects closure of monsoon season and the strong increase in metallic minerals such as iron ore.

At the same time, the annual decline in electricity slowed to 1.5 percent from 6.9 percent in October, data showed.

Nonetheless, during April to November, industrial production growth slowed to 3.3 percent from 4.1 percent in the same period last year.

The flash Purchasing Managers' survey results showed that India's manufacturing sector registered a slowdown at the end of the year. The S&P Global/HSBC manufacturing PMI posted 55.7 in December, down from 56.6 in November.

The manufacturing sector showed the smallest improvement in two years in November, albeit one that was still marked and more pronounced than the series average.