1NEW DELHI, Feb 12: India’s industrial output grew by 7.6 per cent in December, far below last year’s double-digit expansion, data showed on Tuesday, as the finance minister called for easier credit to spur the economy.

The industrial growth in Asia’s third-largest economy was up from November’s revised figure of 5.1 per cent but sharply down from the 13.4 per cent expansion logged in December 2006, the official figures showed.Nine interest rate hikes since 2004 to tame inflation have slowed demand for consumer goods and dampened industrial growth.

“There has been a slowing down of credit growth” that has to “some extent affected the flow of credit in the housing and consumer durables sector,” Finance Minister P. Chidambaram said after meeting heads of state-run banks.

Chidambaram said he pressed state-run banks to focus on “credit delivery” to ensure enough loan funds for home-buyers and people who want to purchase consumer goods.

At the same time, he said banks should not ignore “credit quality,” mindful of the subprime debt crisis that has engulfed the United States.—AFP