India's industrial data highlight 'dismal' economy

India's industrial output rose just 0.6 per cent in February, official figures showed on Friday, adding to a string of weak economic data and bolstering the case for more interest-rate cuts. While the output increase at factories, mines and utilities defied analysts' forecasts of a 1.0 per cent decline, it was much slower than January's 2.4 per cent gain and a sign that Asia's third-largest economy remains in trouble. "It says quite a lot when we celebrate a 0.6 per cent year-on-year industrial production output (rise), but this is testament to how low expectations have sunk," wrote Credit Suisse economist Robert Prior-Wandesforde. Manufacturing, which accounts for three-quarters of India's Index of Industrial Production, grew 2.2 per cent in February from a year earlier but output of consumer durables such as refrigerators and stoves fell by 2.7 per cent.