NEW DELHI: Buoyed by a robust performance by the manufacturing sector, growth in industrial production in January this year was higher at 10.9 per cent as compared to 8.5 per cent in the same month a year ago.

According to quick estimates of the Index of Industrial Production (IIP) released by the Central Statistical Organisation (CSO) here, industrial growth during the first ten months of 2006-07 was 11 per cent on the back of an eight per cent growth clocked during the same period in the previous fiscal.

In January, while the manufacturing sector posted a growth of 11.6 per cent as compared to 9.4 per cent in the same month of 2006, growth in the mining sector was three-fold at six per cent when compared to the two per cent in the year earlier. The power sector also saw a higher growth at 8.5 per cent as against 6.4 per cent in the same month last year.

For the April-January as a whole this fiscal, the manufacturing sector growth worked out still higher at 11.9 per cent as compared to nine per cent during the ten months of 2005-06. Growth in the mining sector was markedly higher at 4.5 per cent as compared to a mere 0.6 per cent clocked during the previous fiscal, while the power sector also fared better with a growth of 7.6 per cent as against five per cent earlier.

In January, 16 out of 17 industry groups achieved positive growth as compared to the same month of 2006. As per use-based classification, while the basic goods segment grew 11.6 per cent in January 2007 as compared to 7.5 per cent in January last year, the consumer goods segment also notched up a growth of 9.9 per cent as against eight per cent in the year ago period.

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