Finance Minister P. Chidambaram informed the Lok Sabha today that out of the 22 manufacturing sub-sectors, the growth rate of 14 of them was positive during April-June this year. Only 8 sub-sectors witnessed a negative growth.

The slowdown was mainly in the textiles, chemicals and capital goods sector. In a written reply, he said the government has taken several confidence-building measures to revive the economy.These include provision of better access to finance for the manufacturing sector and fast tracking of large investment projects in areas like power, petroleum and gas, roads and coal.

The financial and banking sectors are being strengthened to reduce the volatility of exchange rate. The Finance Minister said that the Micro, Medium and Small Enterprises sector is being promoted with higher allocation of funds, liberalization of capital market to attract off-shore investment.