The Hindu : Business : Infrastructure growth slumps to 3.6% in April

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Infrastructure growth slumps to 3.6% in April

Special Correspondent

NEW DELHI: In what may come as a further jolt to the Government in the wake of high crude prices and a soaring oil import bill, growth in the infrastructure industry slump- ed to 3.6 per cent in the first month of the current fiscal, mainly on account of a slide in crude and petroleum refinery output and electricity generation.

The performance data on the six core industries — crude oil, petroleum refinery products, coal, electricity, cement and finished carbon steel — released here on Wednesday reveal that the 3.6 per cent growth posted in April was not only way below the 9.6 per cent increase witnessed in the previous month but also lower as compared to the 5.9 per cent growth notched up in April 2007.

Drop in generation

The dismal performance of these key sectors can be gauged from the fact that against a robust growth of 15.1 per cent in April a year ago, petroleum refinery output increased by a mere 4.3 per cent during the same month this year while the growth in crude oil production slid from 1.4 per cent to 0.9 per cent.

As for electricity, the growth in generation fell from 8.7 per cent in April 2007 to 1.4 per cent in April 2008.

However, the other three sectors — coal, cement and steel — which have a combined weight of 26.7 per cent in the index of industrial production (IIP), put up a relatively good show during the first month of 2008-09.

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