new delhi mar 25 indias industrial production is expected to stay muted in the near term owing to weak exports rural distress credit constraints and uncertainty over the election outcome a report said monday according to dun and bradstreets db latest economy forecast the index of industrial production iip is likely to have grown by 332 per cent during february 2019 as per the iip data in january released by the central statistics office cso the growth in industrial production declined to 17 per cent as against 75 per cent a year ago owing to subdued performance of the manufacturing sector especially capital and consumer goods given the headwinds in the global economy and domestic structural bottlenecks the concerns to growth remain heightened said arun singh lead economist dun bradstreet india singh further noted that in the short term the risks remain accentuated as the concerns on the global front are growing while domestically the uncertainty on the outcome of the election will tend to keep the investment activity subdued on the prices front the report said reversal in food prices that have remained unusually low are likely to push up inflation moreover the electionrelated spending and expected lower kharif crop output would exert additional inflationary pressures db expects the cpi inflation to be in the range of 2628 per cent and the wholesale price indexbased inflation to be in the range of 332 per cent during march respectively according to singh some of the key risk factors for the indian economy are stressed assets in the banking sector decline in tax mobilisation through gst ailing rural economy and concerns in key sectors such as telecom power and real estate he also said we hope that the recent efforts to strengthen the balance sheets of the banking sector and corporates turn the wheels of the domestic investment activity further the business and consumer confidence could get an impetus once the uncertainty over the election outcome gets over drr hrs