Indicating persistent sluggishness in the economy, industrial output contracted to a three-month low of 0.6 per cent in December due to poor performance of manufacturing and mining sectors and decline in production of capital as well as consumer goods.

The industrial output, as measured by the Index of Industrial Production (IIP) had grown by 2.7 per cent in December, 2011.

Industrial production growth stood at 0.7 per cent during April-December period of this fiscal, down from 3.7 per cent in the same period of 2011-12, according to official data released here today.

Meanwhile the decline in industrial output for November 2012 has been revised downwards to 0.84 per cent from a contraction of 0.1 per cent in the month as per the provisional estimates released last month.

The growth in industrial output for October last year has, however, been revised upward to 10.66 per cent from the first revision of 8.3 per cent released last month.

The IIP in December slumped to a three month low mainly due to decline in factory output by 0.7 per cent in September.

The manufacturing sector, which constitutes over 75 per cent of the index, registered a contraction of 0.7 per cent in December in 2012, as against a growth of 2.8 per cent in 2011.

The growth in the output of the key sector remained low at 0.7 per cent in April-December last year as against 4 per cent growth in the same period of 2011.

The mining output in December last year contracted by 4 per cent compared to a decline in production by 3.3 per cent in the same month in 2011.

In April-December, the production in the sector declined by 1.9 per cent, against a contraction of 2.6 per cent in the year-ago period.