The Hindu Business Line : Core sector growth slips to 4.5% in October

New Delhi, Dec. 27 The decline in production of crude petroleum, petroleum refinery products, cement, and carbon steel has pulled down the growth of the six infrastructure industries to 4.5 per cent in October 2007, compared with a growth of 9.9 per cent in the same month last year.

According to data released by the Government on Thursday, the production of crude petroleum registered a negative growth of 0.1 per cent in October this year as against 9.3 per cent in October last year.

Petroleum refinery production, on the other hand, grew a meagre 2.8 per cent compared to a growth of 18.1 per cent in October 2006.

“During the April to October period of the current financial year, the growth of the core infrastructure industries, which has a 26.7 per cent weightage in the Index of Industrial Production (IIP), declined to 6.2 per cent from 8.9 per cent in the corresponding period last year,” the data said.

Electricity generation in October this year also dipped to 4.2 per cent from 9.7 per cent in the same month last year. While coal production saw a growth of 9.2 per cent, cement and finished steel production for the month slipped.

Coal production up

While coal production grew an encouraging 9.2 per cent from just 1.9 per cent in the same month last year, cement production declined to 7 per cent from 9.4 per cent in October 2006 and finished (carbon) steel production dipped to 4.8 per cent from 10.6 per cent.

During the April to October period this fiscal, the growth declined in all the sectors with the exception of electricity generation where the rate remained unchanged at 7.1 per cent.

Crude petroleum production registered a growth of just 0.6 per cent during the seven-month period compared to 4.8 per cent for the same period last year. Growth in petroleum refinery production stood at 8.8 per cent compared to 13.1 per cent in April-October 2006-07.

“Coal production grew by 3.8 per cent in April-October this year compared to 4.8 per cent last year and cement production grew by 8.1 per cent during the period against 10.4 per cent in the corresponding period last year,” the data said.

The growth in finished (carbon) steel was just 6.1 per cent against 11.9 per cent in April-October 2006-07.