The country’s industrial output perked up slightly to 5.2 per cent in January from 4.7 per cent in December 2022, mainly because of the good performance of the power, mining and manufacturing sectors, according to official data.

There was an improvement on an annual as well as sequential basis. The factory output growth measured in terms of the Index of Industrial Production (IIP) stood at 2 per cent in January 2022.

Aditi Nayar, chief economist of Icra, said: “Encouragingly, the IIP growth of 5.2 per cent for January 2023 recorded an uptick both in sequential terms (+4.7 per cent in December 2022), as well as compared with the tepid average of 2.6 per cent for Q3 FY2023, and stood at the second highest level since July 2022.”

According to the IIP data released by the National Statistical Office (NSO), the manufacturing sector’s output grew 3.7 per cent in January 2023 from 1.9 per cent a year ago.

Mining output rose 8.8 per cent compared with 3 per cent in January 2022. Power generation also surged 12.7 per cent against 0.9 per cent in the yearago month.

Madan Sabnavis, chief economist of Bank of Baroda, said: “There has been a fairly broad-based growth story with mining, manufacturing and electricity all witnessing good numbers.”