The Hindu : Infrastructure growth falls in Jan.

Online edition of India's National Newspaper
Tuesday, Feb 25, 2003

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Infrastructure growth falls in Jan.

By Our Special Correspondent

NEW DELHI FEB. 24. Growth in six critical infrastructure sectors of crude petroleum, finished steel, cement, electricity, petroleum refinery products and coal recorded a growth of only 4.1 per cent in January this year as against 7.1 per cent in the same month last year. Cumulative growth for the April-January period, however, rose to 5.2 per cent as against 3.1 per cent last year.

According to latest official data released here today, the lower growth in January was mainly on account of poor performance by crude petroleum, finished steel and cement sectors. The only sector that showed a recovery was the crude petroleum which rebounded from a negative 1.4 per cent to reach 0.4 per cent growth in January.

The cumulative growth in this sector also rose to 3.3 per cent during the April-January period compared to a negative 1.8 per cent growth over the same period in the previous year.

All other sectors barring electricity registered lower growth during the month. The electricity sector, in contrast, recorded 4 per cent growth while the cumulative growth for the first ten months of 2002-3 was higher at 3.8 per cent.

The data show that finished steel, however, did not perform well with growth dipping from 13.4 per cent in January 2002 to 4.5 per cent in the current year while cumulative growth doubled to 7.7 per cent from 3.5 per cent in 2001-02.

As for coal output, it registered a negative growth of 0.6 per cent in January compared to 5.2 per cent in the previous year. Cumulative growth improved marginally to 4.4 per cent. The petroleum refinery products sector, on the other hand, fell slightly by 0.7 per cent to 9.2 per cent during January along with cumulative growth that also fell to 4.2 per cent during the ten-month period.

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