The eight core infrastructure sectors posted a growth of 3.2 per cent in August (year-on-year), the same as the previous month. While the production of coal, crude oil and natural gas declined that of steel, cement, refinery products and electricity went up.

The cumulative growth of the sectors, which account for about 38 per cent of the country’s industrial production, was 4.5 per cent in the April-August 2016 period, according to a Commerce Ministry release on Friday.

This was because the average production in the first three months of the fiscal was over 5 per cent, and started decelerating only in the past two months.

Steel production (weight of 6.68 per cent) posted the highest increase of 17 per cent during the month, as imports declined due to various restrictions, including a minimum import price.

Coal production (weight of 4.38 per cent) declined by 9.2 per cent in August while refinery products (weight of 5.94 per cent) posted a growth of 3.5 per cent.

Fertilisers, though with a lower weight (1.25 per cent), grew 5.7 per cent during the month, while electricity, with the highest weight (10.32 per cent), rose marginally at 0.1 per cent. Cement production increased by 3.1 per cent compared with August 2015. Natural gas (weight of 1.71 per cent) and crude oil (weight of 5.22 per cent) declined by 5.7 per cent and 3.9 per cent, respectively.

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