Thursday, June 19, 2008

Infrastructure Sector Growth Declines To 3.6% In April - June 19, 2008

The growth rate of the six core infrastructure industries witnessed a dip in April this year compared to the same month last year. The combined growth recorded by the six core sector industries fell to 3.6 per cent in April as against 5.9 per cent in April 2007.

A more than 10 per cent growth in coal production along with improved performance by the steel and cement sector prevented the infrastructure index from dipping further under pressure from poor growth in electricity generation, crude oil production and petroleum refinery output. Coal production went up by 10.3 per cent in April (0.6 per cent in the same month last year), cement output gained by 6.9 per cent (5.8 per cent) while crude steel production improved by four per cent (2.7 per cent).

The three industries that created the downward pressure on the index are crude oil (from 1.4 per cent in April 2007 went down to 0.9 per cent in April 2008), refinery output (from 15.1 per cent to 4.3 per cent) and electricity generation (from 8.7 per cent to 1.4 per cent). In absolute terms, crude oil production in April 2008 was 2.81 million tonnes (2.79 mt in April 2007), petroleum refinery output was 12.13 mt (11.64 mt) and electricity generation was 58,815 GwH (58,030 GwH). Coal production went up to 34.98 mt (31.72 mt), cement output increased to 15.52 mt (14.52 mt) while steel production was 4.13 mt (3.97 mt).

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