Slowdown looms, IIP at 5.3%

Industrial output growth in January registered a 10-month low of 5.3 per cent against 11.6 per cent in the same month last year and a revised 7.7 per cent in December, raising doubts over whether India will grow at 9 per cent in fiscal 2007-08.

The fall took place chiefly because of an unexpected decline in capital goods and a continuing downtrend in consumer durables.

Data on the Index of Industrial Production (IIP) were released by the Central Statistical Organisation at noon and caused the Bombay Stock Exchange