New Delhi, July 10 (IANS) India’s infrastructure development is likely to be one of the key drivers of industrial activity, which will see an upturn in a few months, the research arm of Moody’s said Friday.
India’s industrial performance thus far in the financial year has been stronger than expected.

“A rise in domestic activity has likely helped to offset external weakness and arrested the downward trend in industrial production,” said Sherman Chan, an economist with Moody’s Economy.com.

“Inadequate roads, ports and railways have long held India back from realizing its full growth potential. Provided funding is available, infrastructure construction in India is expected to be robust in coming years,” Chan said.

This will drive industrial activity, she added.

Maintaining that industrial production was on an upward trend, Chan said: “Although industrial production appears to have bottomed out, as an upward trend has appeared, a solid recovery may still be a few months away.”

According to her, just as in Japan, “producers in India may have run down inventories during the early stage of the global turmoil, meaning that the decline in production was steeper than the fall in orders, and the recent rise in production could be a result of businesses rebuilding inventories amid signs of green shoots in the global environment.”