India's April industrial output rises at a slow 6.3 percent

New Delhi - India's industrial production grew at a much slower 6.3 percent in April as per the new series compared to 13.1 percent in April 2010, according to official data released Friday.

The new series will now compute the index of industrial production (IIP) keeping 2004-05 as the base year, compared to the earlier series which had 1993-94 as the base.

As per the old series, the IIP growth came in at a much slower 4.4 percent. It had grown by 16.6 percent in April 2010 going by 1993-94 as the base.

Finance Minister Pranab Mukherjee termed the figures "disturbing".

"In terms of industries, 16 out of the 22 industry groups in the manufacturing sector have shown positive growth during the month of April 2011 as compared to the corresponding month of the previous year," said a statement from the ministry of statistics and programme implementation.

As per the new series, manufacturing, which constitutes about 80 percent of the IIP, grew at a rate of 6.9 percent in April compared to 14.4 percent last year, while mining increased by 2.2 percent as against 9.2 percent in April 2010.

Electricity generation rose 6.4 percent during the month under review.

Consumer goods output were sluggish at 2.9 percent, compared to 13.8 percent in April 2010, while consumer durables production slowed to 3.8 percent as against a whopping 23.3 percent in the like month of last year.

For the year 2010-11, IIP grew 8.2 percent over the corresponding period of the previous year.