The Hindu Business Line : Crude leads decline in key core sector growth in Nov

Downtrends
Cumulative output for Apr-Nov down to 6% (8.9%)
Electricity, cement see November dip.
Petroleum refinery growth at 5.2% for the month (16.4%)

Our Bureau

New Delhi, Jan. 8 Led by a sluggish performance by the crude oil sector, growth in the key infrastructure industries slowed to 5.3 per cent in November 2007, down from 9.6 per cent a year ago, Government data said on Tuesday. The index of the six key infrastructure industries had registered a 4.3 per cent increase in output in October 2007.

With infrastructure output slowing consistently since September last year, the cumulative output for the April-November period of the current fiscal also declined to 6 per cent (8.9 per cent).

Crude petroleum, petroleum refinery products, coal, electricity, cement and finished carbon steel form the core infrastructure industries group, accounting for 26.7 per cent weightage in the overall Index of Industrial Production (IIP).

Sector trend

During November 2007, with the exception of the coal sector, growth in all other industries registered a decline. Crude petroleum showed the worst performance among all these sectors, managing a growth of just 0.3 per cent in November last year, against 9.8 per cent in the same month the previous year. The petroleum refinery sector grew by 5.2 per cent (16.4 per cent).

Electricity generation also dipped to 5.8 per cent during November 2007, down from 8.8 per cent, while cement production grew by 4.5 per cent, declining from 11.8 per cent in the same month in 2006. Finished carbon steel registered a growth of 5.8 per cent in November 2007 (9.3 per cent).

However, coal production grew by 7.7 per cent in November 2007 from 4.9 per cent in the same month of 2006.

April-Nov data

For the April-November period of 2007-08, all the six infrastructure industries registered a decline in growth. While crude petroleum grew by a meagre 0.6 per cent during the eight months of the current fiscal as compared to a 5.4 per cent jump in output, growth in petroleum refinery declined to 8.3 per cent (13.5 per cent).

The coal and electricity sectors registered a minor decline in growth to 4.3 per cent and 7 per cent, from 4.8 per cent and 7.3 per cent respectively. Growth in cement production stood at 7.6 per cent (10.6 per cent).

Finished carbon steel also showed a dismal performance with growth declining to 5.9 per cent (11.6 per cent).

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