Industrial growth slowed to 3.7 per cent in January, 2011, compared to 16.8 per cent expansion in the year-ago period, dragged down by the poor performance of the manufacturing sector, particularly capital goods.

However, growth in factory output in January, as measured in terms of the Index of Industrial Production, was better than the 2.53 per cent expansion (revised upward from 1.6 per cent) witnessed in the previous month.

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Industrial output growth during the April-January period this fiscal stood at 8.3 per cent vis-a-vis the corresponding period of the previous year.

In contrast, industrial output expanded by 9.5 per cent year-on-year in April-January, 2009-10, official data shows.

In January, manufacturing growth plummeted to 3.3 per cent from 17.9 per cent a year ago.

The capital goods sector contracted by 18.6 per cent in the month under review.

The sector had posted a robust growth of 57.9 per cent in January, 2010.

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However, production in the consumer non-durables segment grew by 6.9 per cent during the month under review.

It had contracted by 7 per cent in the same period a year ago.

Mining growth also plummeted to 1.6 per cent in the month under review from 15.3 per cent in the comparable month of 2010.

Electricity generation output rose by 10.5 per cent in January, compared to 5.6 per cent growth in the same month last year.

On the whole, 14 out of 17 industry groups achieved positive growth in the first month of 2011.