Industrial output in April likely to have risen 2.4

Production at factories,mines and utilities rose an annual 2.4 per cent,after a 2.5 per cent rise in March,according to a consensus forecast of 25 economists. Forecasts ranged from an expansion of 1.5 to 4.0 percent.

Although the consensus points to an expansion in factory output in the first month of the fiscal year,the pace does not suggest a strong revival in Asias third-largest economy after it posted a decade-low growth for the fiscal year to March 2013.

Indias economy turned a corner in the quarter to March,growing 4.8 percent on a year earlier,slightly faster than the upwardly revised 4.7 percent growth seen in the previous three months.

Recent economic data suggest that growth has bottomed out,but no clear evidence yet of setting in of a cyclical revival. IIP growth thus likely to stay sluggish, said Abhishek Upadhyay,an economist at Axis bank.

A moderate recovery in Indian factories,exports and investments were probably the main drivers for an increase in overall growth in the quarter through March,data showed.