国际英语新闻：India's industrial output growth shrinks to 4.4 pct in September

MUMBAI, Nov. 12 (Xinhua) -- India's index of industrial production (IIP) posted a 4.4 percent year-on-year growth in September indicating the slowdown of Indian economy, according to the Indian statistical authority Friday.

The IIP growth in September is again slower than economists' average forecast of around 7 percent as well as 6.92 percent of newly revised growth in August.

Indian mining, manufacturing and electricity sectors grew 5.2 percent, 4.5 percent and 1.7 percent respectively in September from a year earlier.

Meanwhile, capital goods sector suffered 4.2 percent decrease and consumer goods witnessed 5.2 percent increase.

Indian central bank Reserve Bank of India (RBI) is expected to press the pause button of monetary tightening in the coming years with both industrial production and headline inflation losing steam.

RBI has raised key interests rates for six times so far this year with repo rate and reverse repo rate up 1.5 percentage points and 2 percentage points respectively.

The central bank has to walk a fine line between the need to contain inflation and to secure sustainable economic growth, which is expected to be 8.5 percent in this fiscal year.

Indian IIP growth showed substantial volatility in recent months with 7.1 percent in June from 11.52 in May and 6.92 percent in August from 13.8 percent in July.

India's IIP saw a 16.52 percent expansion in April and is expected to grow at around 9 percent on average this fiscal year starting from April 1.

India has a 10.2 percent of accumulated IIP growth from April to September, according to the latest figure.