Industrial growth slowed in February to 0.1%, driven by an across the board slowdown, especially in key sectors such as manufacturing, mining, capital goods, and infrastructure, according to official data released on Friday.

A separate data release showed that retail inflation quickened in March to 2.86% from 2.57% in February, driven in large part by the food and fuel sectors.

Growth in the Index of Industrial Production (IIP) slowed in February from 1.44% in January. Within the index, the mining and quarrying sector saw growth slowing to 2% from 3.92% over the same period. The manufacturing sector saw a contraction of 0.31% in February from 1.05% in January.

The capital goods sector continued its contraction in February, contracting 8.84% compared to a contraction of 3.42% in the previous month. Growth in the infrastructure sector slowed to 2.38% from 6.8% over the same period.

Retail inflation, as measured by the Consumer Price Index (CPI), quickened in March to a five-month high due to a speeding up of inflation in the food and fuel sectors.

Inflation in the food and beverages segment of the CPI quickened to 0.66% in March compared with a contraction of 0.07% in February.

Similarly, inflation in the fuel and light segment quickened to 2.42% in March from 1.24% in February.