“The downtrend in the growth performance prevailed over the last year due to various much talked about reasons like high inflation, rupee appreciation and high interest rates. Manufacturing sector was hit due to increase in raw material prices, increase in wage bill due to high competition and well known bottleneck with respect to infrastructure. .Manufacturing suffered a double whammy as it also suffered on account of low consumer spending as hike in interest rates made consumers defer their purchase and thus affecting the industrial output.There is urgent need to build infrastructure, create institutions and policy for Advanced Manufacturing and Engineering, remove bottlenecks with respect to power costs and labor laws. .CII Manufacturing council has also suggested a 10-point strategic agenda for taking manufacturing to a new growth plane.Source: Confederation of Indian Industry”

Date:5/13/2008

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