India's industrial output posts surprise 2.4% jump

India's industrial output grew by a better-than-expected 2.4 percent in January from a year earlier, data showed on Tuesday. The rise in January output at India's factories, mines and utilities beat analysts' expectations of one-percent increase, according to a Dow Jones Newswires poll, after a surprise 0.6-percent drop in December. "Inventory restocking likely boosted production after below-trend growth in December," Nomura analyst Candy Cheung said ahead of the figures. But she added that underlying industrial growth was likely to remain weak due to supply bottlenecks as a result of India's dilapidated infrastructure and relatively weak global demand. Manufacturing, which accounts for three-quarters of India's Index of Industrial Production, grew by 2.7 percent in January from a year earlier. Car sales in India's once-booming passenger market plunged nearly 26 percent in February, the biggest dive in 12 years, industry figures showed on Monday. The government forecasts that India's once-booming economy will grow by 5.0 percent in the current financial year to March 31 and it is hoping for over six percent growth the following year. Last year, the economy grew by 6.2 percent but even that rate -- while enviable by anaemic Western standards -- is insufficient to create the jobs India needs for its fast-growing young population.