Considering the 2.4 percent rise in Indian industrial output numbers of January, the Government hopes that the prevailing economic slowdown might be bottoming out. The Government has hoped that macro-economic indicators would move up in the coming months. In a pleasant surprise, India's annual industrial output growth measured by index of industrial production (IIP) grew by 2.4% at 181.8 for the month of January 2013. The numbers were way above the expectations of the 1% growth figure. The cumulative growth for the period April-December 2012-13 over the corresponding period of the previous year stood at 1%.
On the recently published January IIP data, Commerce and Industry Minister, Anand Sharma has said that IIP figure is encouraging and we feel the economic downturn is bottoming out, but we have to do more, both on exports and industrial manufacturing. Moreover, Planning Commission Deputy Chairman Montek Singh Ahluwalia said "The turnaround is good. I would not call it strong growth but it does bear out that the economy has bottomed out. I would hope that subsequent months will show more robust growth”.
However, the economic growth rate fell to a decade low of 4.5 percent in October -December quarter. The Central Statistical Office (CSO) has projected India's economic growth at an alarmingly low 5% in 2012-13, the worst in 10 years.
