India's Industrial Output Strengthens, Inflation at Record Low

India's industrial output growth strengthened while consumer as well as wholesale inflation eased significantly in recent months, amid a revamp in indexes aimed at better capturing production and price trends.

Output of manufacturing, mining and utilities firms rose 2.7% from a year earlier in March, strengthening from a 1.9% rise in February, government data showed Friday.

Separately, the government reported the benchmark consumer inflation rate fell to 2.99% from a year earlier in April, the lowest level for the series that was introduced in 2012.

Wholesale inflation also decelerated to 3.85% from a year earlier in April, compared with 5.29% in March.

Indian statisticians changed the base year used in the calculation of industrial production and wholesale inflation to the year ended March 31, 2012, from the year through March 2005, aligning them with consumer inflation as well as gross domestic product data which already use the new base year.

The government also introduced new products in the wholesale inflation and production indexes while removing older ones to reflect contemporary demand trends.

Write to Anant Vijay Kala at anant.kala@wsj.com

(END) Dow Jones Newswires

May 12, 2017 08:37 ET (12:37 GMT)