Six core infra industries' growth dips by over 1/3rd in FY08

New Delhi, May 15 (UNI) Decline in production of steel, cement, crude oil and petroleum refinery products pushed down by over one third the growth of six core infrastructure industries in the country in 2007-08 to 5.6 per cent from 9.2 per cent recorded in 2006-07.

These six industries have a combined weightage of 26.7 per cent in the index of industrial production (IIP).

Provisional data released today by the government said steel production grew by just 5.1 per cent in the year goneby as compared to 13.1 per cent in 2006-07.

Cement and electricity production dropped by one per cent during the comparable years. While production of the construction material went down to 8.1 per cent from 9.1 per cent, that of electricity dipped to 6.3 per cent from 7.3 per cent.

Crude oil output registered a negative growth of 0.4 per cent as against 5.6 per cent, while that of petro refinery products halved to 6.5 per cent from 12.9 per cent in FY07.

Coal production remained static with growth of six per cent in 2007-08 from 5.9 per cent in 2006-07.

UNI SAA MP RN1907