November 22, 2008

Indian six core sector growth in April declines to 3.6%

IANS reported that, after a slowdown in industrial production, the growth in the output of 6 core sectors, including crude oil refining, coal and electricity, has also registered a steep fall in April 2008. The growth of these 6 industries namely crude oil, petroleum refining, coal, electricity, cement and finished steel, declined to 3.6% in April 2008 against 5.9% in April 2007.

The 6 core infrastructure industries had registered a 9.6% growth in March 2008. These core infrastructure industries also have a combined weight of 26.7% in the overall Index of Industrial Production.

The refinery products growth slowed down considerably to 4.3% in April from 15.1% in the corresponding month last year while the crude oil growth came down to 0.9% from 1.4%. Electricity generation growth also declined to 1.4% from a robust 8.7% in April 2007.

The other 3 sectors namely, coal, cement and steel, registered positive growth rates. Coal production saw a 10.3% increase from a mere 0.6%, cement increased by 6.9% from 5.8% and finished steel rose by 4% from 2.7%.