After years of growing at a breakneck speed of around 9%, the Indian economy is running out of steam and the manufacturing sector is suffering.

External problems like the crisis in Europe, plus domestic troubles like inflation, are hurting manufacturers, forcing some to shut up shop, scale back - or in some cases, start manufacturing in China.

Ashish Saraf is CFO of Technocraft Industries. His factory outside Mumbai makes yarn, cotton, clothes and engineering equipment. Almost everything is exported so Saraf keeps a close eye on exchange rates, watching as the rupee slid about 25% versus the dollar over the past year.

Usually, when the rupee weakens, Indian exports become cheaper, so buyers overseas order more. But that’s not the case for Saraf because, he explains, the European crisis has completely wiped out demand for his goods.

Faced with similar problems, manufacturing companies across India are shutting down or scaling back.

Narendra Thakkar is finding it hard to staff his garment manufacturing unit. He says laborers want higher wages, because they're paying more for everything from food to fuel. And if they don't get that higher wage, they're going back to their villages where the cost of living is cheaper.

Inflation is also driving up the cost of raw materials at a time when demand is slow.

“It's because investments have stopped,” said Satish Jamdar, of the Confederation of Indian Industry. “Investments in long-term projects have stopped. We need to fuel this, give some impetus to infrastructure.

“I have seen all great nations that came up and started growing; in the beginning, initial development came from spending on infrastructure. Then manufacturing kicks in, services kick in. That's what we require.”

The slowdown in manufacturing is affecting overall growth and India's economy is currently growing at its slowest in almost a decade. Disillusioned with the state of the economy, Saraf set up a manufacturing facility in China, where he makes engineering equipment.

“In China, the benefit primarily was the raw material cost,” he said. “The overall cost of production in China is much lower.”

滬江英語(yǔ)快訊：7月20日消息，經(jīng)過(guò)數(shù)年接近9%的高速增長(zhǎng)后，印度經(jīng)濟(jì)已顯現(xiàn)疲態(tài)。加上歐元區(qū)債務(wù)危機(jī)和通貨膨脹等問(wèn)題，制造業(yè)要么停業(yè)，要么縮小規(guī)模，或者前往中國(guó)擴(kuò)張。技藝工業(yè)首席財(cái)務(wù)官阿謝錫薩納富指出，雖然盧比匯率的下跌使印度產(chǎn)品更便宜，但歐洲危機(jī)完全抹除了產(chǎn)品的外部需求。因?yàn)橹袊?guó)原材料成本很低，他選擇將工程設(shè)備的制造業(yè)務(wù)轉(zhuǎn)向中國(guó)。由于中國(guó)歡迎外商投資，阿謝錫薩納富很快就建立了自己的工廠。