Growth of six infrastructure sectors falls in July
Growth of six infrastructure sectors falls in July
PTI
New Delhi: A substantial slowdown in coal, steel and petroleum refining output dragged overall growth in six core infrastructure sectors to 6.3% in July 2007 compared to 10.9% in the same month of last year.
Core infrastructure industries of crude petroleum, petroleum refinery products, coal, electricity, cement and finished steel all registered a decline in growth.
During April-July 2007-08, growth rate of the six sectors declined to 6.1% as compared to 8.7% during the corresponding period of 2006-07.
While crude petroleum production registered a negative growth of 0.9% in July 2007 from 4.1%, petroleum refinery production dipped to 4.6% from a growth of 12.6% in July 2006.
Coal production registered a growth of 1.1%, a significant decline from the 9.1% growth in July 2006. Electricity generation, cement and finished carbon steel also posted a dip in growth rate.
The slowdown in core sector could have a direct bearing on economic growth, as well as indirect adverse effect on other sectors which use inputs from these industries.
Infrastructure sectors constitute 26.7% of the Index of Industrial Production, which also registered a fall in growth rate to 7.1% during July this year compared to 13.2% in the same month a year ago.
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