New Delhi, Oct 23: For the first time in the current fiscal, in September, core sector industries posted stronger growth as compared to last year in September. The cumulative growth figures for these six infrastructure industries no longer blot the otherwise rosy picture of economy, with a growth of 5.9% in September 03, as compared to 2.2% in the year-ago period.
Also, as per the official data released today, September growth figures have also been cumulatively the highest for the sector since April this year. The low growth registered by the core sectors last September contributed in part to the spurt this year.

As for individual sectors, petroleum refinery products logged a healthy 11% growth in September 03, compared with just 2.9% a year ago. Cement, coal and electricity sectors too registered substantial increase in growth during the month at 7.2% (0.7%), 4.9% (-2.4%) and 5% (-0.4%) respectively. Crude petroleum fared better than last year with 0.3% growth (0.1%).
However, reckoned for April-September period, the growth of infrastructure industries had still been lower than last year at 4.2%. The growth in these industries — crude petroleum, petroleum refinery prod-ucts, coal, electricity, cement and finished steel — stood at 6.5% during April-September, 2002-03. Bureau Report