India output, inflation rate down

India's industrial production fell the most since 1993 and inflation slowed to the lowest in a year, intensifying pressure on policy makers to add to interest-rate and tax cuts to revive a weakening economy. Bonds rose.

Output at factories, utilities and mines dropped 2 percent from a year earlier after a revised 1.7 percent gain in November, the government said today. Inflation slowed to 4.39 percent in the week to Jan 31.

Renault SA, France's second-largest carmaker, today said it may pull out of a factory project in India as consumer demand diminishes. Waning demand and job losses may prompt Prime Minister Manmohan Singh, seeking re-election before May, to boost spending in next week's interim budget to help protect India from the world's worst financial crisis since World War II.