Industrial growth revival possible: Minister

The government on Wednesday expressed the hope that industrial growth will bounce back with the revival of manufacturing sector in the coming months.

"I am hopeful manufacturing sector will revive in the coming months," Commerce and Industry Minister Kamal Nath said.

Growth in India's industrial production nosedived to 6.4 per cent in September this year compared to 12 per cent in the year ago period due to a poor showing by the manufacturing sector, especially the consumer durables segment.

"The decline is mainly due to a weak dollar against the rupee and the higher base of last year," Nath said on the sidelines of the CII Health Summit in New Delhi.

Finance Minister P Chidambaram had earlier stated that it was too early to judge a trend.

"I loathe to draw conclusion from a month's data but overall services and industry will grow perhaps close to 10 per cent this fiscal," Chidambaram had said.

For the first half of the current fiscal (April-September 2007), Index of Industrial Production slipped to 9.2 per cent against 11.1 per cent in the corresponding period a year ago.

During September, the manufacturing sector growth decelerated to 6.6 per cent compared to 12.7 per cent in the same month last year. The consumer durables sector reported a 7.6 per cent decline in output during the month.