Mumbai: Industrial production growth in the country dropped to 7.0 per cent in April 2008, against 11.3 per cent in the same month a year ago, due to sluggish growth in manufacturing and power sectors.

The performance in the first month of fiscal 2008-09, however, was much better than the 3.9 per cent growth rate witnessed in March, the last month of the previous fiscal, the Index of Industrial Production (IIP) data showed.

While the growth in manufacturing and electricity sectors dipped in the month, the mining sector posted robust growth.

The growth in manufacturing declined sharply to 7.5 per cent from 12.4 per cent in the corresponding period last year while the mining sector posted an impressive show of 8.6 per cent growth, up from 2.6 per cent.

Electricity generation also saw a steep fall at 1.4 per cent against 8.7 per cent during the same month last year.

In terms of industries, as many as 14 out of 17 industry groups have shown positive growth in April 2008, compared to the corresponding month of the previous year.The industry group consisting of 'beverages, tobacco and related products' have shown the highest growth of 30.7 per cent, followed by 15.4 per cent in 'basic chemicals and chemical products (except products of petroleum and coal)', 11.4 per cent in 'transport equipment and parts' and 10.2 per cent in 'leather and fur products'.

On the other hand, the industry group 'jute and other vegetable fibre textile (except cotton)' have shown a negative growth of 9.9 per cent, followed by 6.3 per cent in 'food products' and 2.0 per cent in 'textile products (including apparel)'.As per the use-based classification of IIP, the capital goods sector recorded a slow growth of 14.2 per cent in April against 10.9 per cent a year ago.

The growth of basic goods declined to 4.6 per cent from 8.6 per cent in the corresponding month last year and that of intermediate goods declined to 4.2 per cent from 10.6 per cent for the same month a year-ago.

The consumer durables sector witnessed a growth rate of 5.5 per cent, compared to 2.4 per cent in April 2007, while non-durables growth considerably slowed down to 9.8 per cent from 18.7 per cent for the same month a year-ago. Consequently, the overall consumer goods sector growth was 8.9 per cent, down from 14.7 per cent for the same month in the previous year.