Budget steps may boost industry - PM adviser

Enlarge Photo File photo of cars being assembled at a plant in Maharashtra, April 2, 2007. Fiscal...

Wed, Mar 12 06:25 PM

NEW DELHI (Reuters) - Fiscal stimulus steps in the Union budget for 2008/09 could boost industrial output in the months ahead, but rising global crude oil prices may pressure inflation, a top policy adviser said on Wednesday.

C. Rangarajan, chairman of Prime Minister Manmohan Singh's Economic Advisory Council, told reporters a slowdown in consumer goods output could be cyclical.

Data released on Wednesday showed output in January grew 5.3 percent from a year earlier, well below both economists' forecast in a Reuters poll of 8.0 percent and the previous month's upwardly revised annual rate of 7.7 percent.

The most noticeable pressure point in January was durable consumer goods, such as large household items, which contracted by an annual 3.1 percent.

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