NEW DELHI: India's industrial production slid a surprise 1.9 percent in February, data showed Friday, underscoring the big economic revival task facing the new government that emerges from elections now under way.
The tumble in output in February from India's mines, factories and utilities from the same month a year earlier was a surprise to investors and analysts, who had forecast a rise of 0.9 percent.
Manufacturing output, which accounts for over three-quarters of the Index of Industrial Production, slid by a hefty 3.7 percent in February from a year earlier.
The Congress-led government, expected to lose power to the centre-right opposition Bharatiya Janata Party in an ongoing election, had hoped "green shoots" of recovery would be visible before voting began earlier this week.
But the economy has been stumbling badly in the face of high interest rates, creaking infrastructure and a slew of political scandals that discouraged investment.
The government has forecast economic growth of 4.9 percent in the financial year which ended March 31 but many economists expect expansion to be in the low four-percent range.
The economy expanded by 4.5 percent the previous year, the weakest pace in a decade -- half the blistering pace recorded in the so-called "Indian summer" of the last decade when expansion was near double-digits.
Voting in India's mammoth five-week election ends on May 12 with results due four days later.
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