Festive season push helped India’s industrial growth to a three-month high of 3.5 percent in October, compared to 3.1 percent in the previous month, data released on December 12 showed.

October marks the second consecutive month of rise in industrial output, after a slight contraction in August. The reading was in line with a Moneycontrol poll of 15 economists, which predicted growth to rise to 3.6 percent.

Of the three major industries, mining rose 0.9 percent, while manufacturing expanded 4.1 percent compared with 3.9 percent in the previous month, while electricity growth remained muted at 2 percent.

The performance of the core sector industries, which constitute 40 percent of the Index of Industrial Production, was also better in October. India’s core sector output had expanded 3.1 percent in October as compared to a revised 2.4 percent in September, as four of the eight sectors recorded a faster pace of growth.

Manufacturing activity has remained subdued in the first half of the year, especially in the second quarter. But the government is hopeful of a pickup in the third quarter.

India's economy slowed drastically to 5.4 percent in the second quarter of the year, as industrial and mining activity slowed in July-September period.

Mining contracted for the first time in two years, while manufacturing took a hit with growth stumbling to 2.2 percent in Q2FY25 from 7 percent from in the previous quarter.