Zeenews Bureau
New Delhi: Riding on the back of improved performance of coal, electricity and cement sectors, key infrastructure industries registered a healthy growth of four percent in September. However, the figure fell short of upwardly revised annual growth of 7.8 percent in August.
The six core infrastructure industries, which account for 26.7 percent in the Index of Industrial Production (IIP), had grown at
the same rate a year ago, according to the data released by
the government here today.
The industries grew at 3.4% during the corresponding period of the previous year.
While coal, electricity and cement sectors showed
impressive growth, crude oil output continued to be a dampener
falling for the ninth time in past 10 months.
The index of the core industries, which account for a
quarter of the nation's industrial production, had helped the
factory output reach a robust 10.4 per cent growth in August.
With infrastructure growth slipping again, it is a matter
of debate if the August performance of the total industrial
production can be repeated in September.
"I can say that IIP for September will not be in a double
digit," CRISIL Principal Economist D K Joshi said.
The overall figure in the September month was led by Electricity sector, with electricity generation, which has also a weightage of 10.17 percent in the IIP, registered a growth of 7.5 percent.
It grew 4.4% in September 2008. The April-September growth of the sector was stood at 6.8% during 2009-10 compared to 2.6% during the same period of 2008-09.
The growth rate was also higher for coal and cement sector. Both coal and cement production registered a growth of 6.5 percent.
Crude oil production at 2.77 million tonnes was down 0.5
per cent in September, refineries produced 3.4 per cent more
fuel at 12.59 million tonnes.
The Crude Oil production registered a growth of (-) 1.2% during April-September 2009-10 compared to (-) 0.8% during the same period of 2008-09.
Petroleum refinery production, on the other hand, registered a
growth of 3.4% in September 2009 compared to growth of 2.8% in September 2008. The Petroleum refinery production registered a growth of (-)3.6% during April-September 2009-10 compared to 4.5% during the same period of 2008-09.
Finished (carbon) Steel production recorded a growth of (-) 0.4% in September 2009 compared to 2.1% in September 2008. Finished (carbon) Steel production grew by 3.0% during April-September 2009-10 compared to an increase of 3.3% during the same period of 2008-09.
First Published: Wednesday, October 28, 2009, 17:15