The Hindu : Business : Infrastructure sector growth slumps in Sept.

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Wednesday, Nov 14, 2007
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Infrastructure sector growth slumps in Sept.

Special Correspondent

Crude petroleum sector reports worst performance

NEW DELHI: In keeping with the deceleration in industrial production, the growth of the six core infrastructure industries slumped to six per cent in September from 10.6 per cent in the same month a year ago.

As a consequence, infrastructure growth for April-September of the current fiscal also declined to 6.6 per cent from 8.7 per cent recorded for the same period in the previous fiscal.

The performance of the six core infrastructure industries invariably gets sharply reflected in the industrial growth trend as sector accounts for 26.7 per cent of the overall industrial production index.

In September this year, the worst performance among the six core industries was put up by the crude petroleum sector with a negative production growth of 0.7 per cent as compared to a healthy 9.4 per cent growth achieved in the like month a year ago. Although the petroleum refinery sector grew by 6.9 per cent, it was nearly half of the 13.4 per cent growth posted last year.

Comparatively, electricity generation also put up a poor show with a low growth of 4.3 per cent as against 11.5 per cent last year. Likewise, the cement sector witnessed a much lower growth of just five per cent when compared to a robust 16.5 per cent last year.

Coal sector

The only sector that improved its performance during the month was coal with a production growth of 6.2 per cent as compared to a negative growth of 0.8 per cent while finished steel production remained steady with a growth of 10.3 per cent.

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