Date:31/01/2006 URL: http://www.thehindubusinessline.com/2006/01/31/stories/2006013102650900.htm

Back Marginal drop in growth of infrastructure industries

Our Bureau

New Delhi , Jan. 30

THE six core infrastructure industries, including crude petroleum, coal, cement and electricity, witnessed a marginal decline in growth to 4.7 per cent in December 2005 from 4.8 per cent in the same month last year.

For the April-December 2005-06 period, the six core industries saw a decline in growth to 4.5 per cent from 6.4 per cent in the comparable period last year, an official communiqué said.

This marginal decline in infrastructure growth during December 2005 was largely on account of a sharp decline in crude oil output and poor performance in the power sector. According to the data released, the crude petroleum production registered a negative growth of 8.1 per cent (provisional) in December 2005 compared to minus 0.6 per cent in December 2004. For the nine-month (April-December 2005-06) period, the crude petroleum production registered a negative growth of 5.9 per cent compared to 2.8 per cent in the same period last year.

Petroleum refinery production registered a growth of 8.8 per cent December 2005 (9.2 per cent). For the nine-month period, the growth was 0.4 per cent (provisional) compared to 6.6 per cent in the same period of 2004-05.

Coal saw a growth of 6.6 per cent (7.7 per cent) in December, while the production grew by 5.7 per cent during April-December 2005-06 period (7.3 per cent.) In electricity, the growth was 2.9 per cent in December 2005 (4.4 per cent). For the April-December period, the growth was 4.7 per cent (6.4 per cent). Cement production registered a double-digit growth of 13.4 per cent (8.3 per cent). Production grew by 10.9 per cent in April-December (6.9 per cent).