Infra growth dips to 4 pc in Dec'07

New Delhi, Feb 13 (UNI) After India's industrial growth rate declined to 7.4 per cent in December 2007, the growth rate of its six key infrastructure industries also slowed to 4 per cent in the month compared to a robust 9 per cent recorded in corresponding month last year.

The slow growth in manufacturing, mining and electricity sectors had pushed down the industrial growth rate to 7.6 per cent in December 2007 from 13.4 per cent in December 2006.

The decline in the index of industrial production (IIP) in December was mainly on account of the manufacturing sector growth, which decelerated to 8.4 per cent from 14.5 per cent in the corresponding period of the last financial year, according to quick estimates of IIP.

The index of six core infrastructure industries - comprising crude oil, refinery, steel, cement, electricity and coal - which has a combined weightage of 26.7 per cent in IIP, grew only by 4 per cent as against 9 per cent growth recorded in the comparable month in 2006, IIP estimates released today said.

December's growth of 4 per cent also turned out to be slower than 4.7 per cent recorded in November.

There was a steep decline in the production of crude oil which went down by 12 per cent to minus 1.5 per cent in December'07 from 10.7 per cent recorded in the same month last year. Similarly, petroleum refinery products growth declined by almost 9 per cent to just 2 per cent from 10.8 per cent a year ago.

Coal production, however, turned out to be a redeeming factor as it clocked 8.4 per cent growth from 2.9 per cent. However electricity generation declined to 3.8 per cent from 9.1 per cent.

Growth of cement production halved to 3.9 per cent from 8 per cent, while that of finished carbon steel also suffered a similar slump from 10.2 per cent in December last to 5.1 per cent in December 07.

UNI SAA PBB RN1953