Indian industrial output surges, beats forecasts
India's industrial output jumped by a better-than-expected 9.1 percent in September from a year earlier, data showed Thursday, fuelling hopes Asia's third-largest economy was firmly on the mend.
Industrial output was underpinned by robust consumer spending in September during the religious festival season, as well as by government stimulus and interest rates at record lows.
Manufacturing output, which accounts for 80 percent of the index, grew by 9.3 percent in September from a year earlier. Mining rose by 8.6 percent and electricity production expanded by 7.9 percent.
Economists had been betting that industrial production would increase by around seven percent after output grew by six percent in the same month the previous year.
Production slowed in September from an 11 percent rise the previous month, but the double-digit rise in August had been partly spurred by a sharply lower year-earlier base effect.
Production of consumer durables, particularly hard hit as India suffered the fallout from the global financial crisis, grew by 22.2 percent in September.
Prime Minister Manmohan Singh said earlier in the week the government would start next year to unwind stimulus measures put in place to shield the economy from the impact of the international slump.
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