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Overall industrial growth rate at 7 per cent in April

Slowdown in the manufacturing sector pulled down the overall industrial growth rate to 7 per cent in April, the first month of the current financial year. The industrial production during April 2008 declined from 11.3 per cent recorded in the corresponding month of the previous financial year, says the Index of Industrial Production (IIP) figures released on Thursday.
The decline has been mainly on account of poor showing by manufacturing and electricity sectors. While the manufacturing sector growth rate slipped from 12.4 per cent to 7.5 per cent during the month, power generation recorded a sharper decline from 8.7 per cent to 1.4 per cent. The mining sector, however, registered a robust growth in April, moving up to 8.6 per cent from 2.6 per cent in the corresponding period last year.
According to the official figures, the industrial growth rate for 2007-08 worked out to be 8.3 per cent, down from 11.6 per cent in the previous year.
As per the use-based classification, consumer goods segment witnessed a decline in growth to 8.9 per cent against 14.7 per cent in the same month last year. However, much to the respite of the white good industry, consumer durable segment registered a g rowth of 5.5 per cent during the month versus 2.4 per cent in the corresponding month the previous year.
At the same time, consumer non-durable segment growth reduced to 9.8 per cent against 18.7 per cent previous year. Intermediate goods production declined to 4.2 per cent compared with 10.6 per cent a year ago. Capital goods, the key sector for industrial growth, however, surged to 14.2 per cent against 10.9 per cent in April 2007. Basic goods decelerated to 4.6 per cent against 8.6 per cent in the previous year.
During the month, as many 14 of 17 industries showed a positive growth in April from a year-ago period. Beverages, tobacco and related products galloped by 30.7 per cent followed by basic chemicals and chemical products, which shot up by 15.4 per cent an d transport equipment and parts by 11.4 per cent. On the other hand, the industry group -- food products, jute and other vegetable fibre textiles and textile products-- have shown a negative growth of 6.3 per cent, 9.9 per cent and 2 per cent respectivel y.

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