New Delhi, June 24: Signalling a downtrend in economic activity, key infrastructure industries performed badly for the second successive month this fiscal, with growth plummeting to four per cent during May, led by a massive fall in crude oil production. The growth of six key infrastructure industries - crude petroleum, petroleum products, coal, electricity, cement and finished steel - fell to four per cent in May from 5.6 percent during the corresponding month of the previous fiscal, according to data released by the government on Tuesday.
The growth also fell during April-May period from 5.8 per cent to four per cent with crude production falling by 3.6 per cent.
Production of petroleum refinery products dipped marginally by 0.1 per cent during May compared with the year-ago period.

Cement production reported a fall in growth from 9.7 per cent during May last year to 7.8 per cent this year.
The electricity sector, however, posted a healthy five per cent growth last month, up from 1.8 per cent last year. Bureau Report