Continued buoyancy in manufacturing coupled with better performance of the power and mining sectors, pushed up the industrial production to 10.7 per cent in August as compared to 10.3 per cent in the corresponding period last year.

Double-digit growth in August also belied the apprehensions of a slowdown feared on account 7.1 per cent industrial growth witnessed in July 2007, which now has been revised upwards to 7.5 per cent.

The cumulative industrial growth during the first five months (April-August 2007-08), however, slipped to 9.8 per cent from 11.0 per cent recorded during the corresponding period last year, according to the Index of Industrial Production (IIP) released by the government on Friday.

The manufacturing sector recorded the double-digit growth rate at 10.4 per cent during August, although down from 11.9 per cent a year ago, the mining sector growth rate improved significantly to 17.1 per cent against a decline of 1.7 per cent in the corresponding month last year.

Electricity generation during August grew by 9.2 per cent as compared to 4.1 per cent a year ago. The capital goods sector during August recorded a robust growth of 30 per cent over 16.6 per cent during the corresponding month a year ago.

On the negative side, the growth rate of the consumer durables sector declined by 6.2 per cent as against a positive growth of 19 per cent in August 2006.

The basic goods and intermediate goods, however, recorded growth rates of 13.3 per cent and 12.3 per cent respectively during August, as against 4.8 per cent and 8.7 per cent in the corresponding period last year.

During April-August, the manufacturing sector growth rate decelerated to 10.3 per cent from 12.2 per cent recorded a year-ago.

The electricity generation and mining sector growth rates increased by 8.3 per cent and 5.4 per cent during the five-month period as against 5.7 per cent and 3 per cent respectively a year ago.

As per the use-based classification of the industrial products, the capital goods sector recorded the highest growth of 21.3 per cent during April-August compared to 19.5 per cent during the corresponding period last year.

The basic goods segment of the industry grew by 10 per cent during the five-month period as against 8.3 per cent a year ago.

The intermediate and consumer goods recorded growth rates of 9.3 per cent and 6.2 per cent respectively during the period.

The consumer durables sector, which has been not been doing well, witnessed a decline of 2.3 per cent during April-August as compared to a robust growth of 16.1 per cent during the corresponding period last year.

The IIP data further reveals that 15 out of 17 industry groups recorded positive growth during August.

The wood and wood products group recorded the highest growth of 62.2 per cent during the month followed by other manufacturing industries (21.8 per cent), basic metal and alloy industries (19.1 per cent).

The segments which recorded negative growth rates were metal products and parts -- except machinery and equipment (2.6 per cent) and textile products, including apparel (2.1 per cent).