December industrial output contracts 0.6 percent

India's industrial production fell an unexpected 0.6 percent in December from a year earlier weighed down by manufacturing, government data showed on Tuesday, extending a period of gloom in Asia's-third largest economy.

Analysts polled by Reuters had expected output to grow 1.1 percent annually.

Manufacturing, which constitutes about 76 percent of industrial production, fell 0.7 percent from a year earlier, the federal statistics office said.

In the April-December period, industrial production expanded an annual 0.7 percent.