INFRASTRUCTURE GROWTH DROPS TO 1.4% IN JAN

New Delhi March 7:

Mirroring the dismal performance in other sectors, growth in infrastructure industries like steel, coal, crude oil, electricity and petroleum and refinery products has fallen to 1.4 per cent in January this year from 3.6 per cent in the same month last year.

Crude oil was the worst performer with decline in production by 8.1 per cent during January. Petroleum refinery products also declined by 2.6 per cent against a growth rate of 5.4 per cent in January 2008. Analysts feel that this trend is likely to continue in view of the dismal show by almost all the sectors except the cement industry.

\"It has not performed as badly as the manufacturing sector...weakness will continue. The economy may start picking up from the second half of 2009-10,\" CRISIL Principal Economist D K Joshi said. Cement production grew by 8.3 per cent for the month under review against 5.6 per cent in January last year. For the April-January period this year, consolidated growth slipped to 3.2 per cent from 5.7 per cent a year ago.

\"The growth will remain in the range of 2-3 per cent in the coming months,\" ICRIER Director Rajiv Kumar said. After contracting for the first time in 15 years in October, the index of industrial production (IIP) again crashed by two per cent in December against a growth rate of a whopping 8 per cent a year ago. The six core industries, which have a weight of 26.68 per cent in the overall Index for Industrial Production, had registered a growth rate of 2.3 per cent in December 2008.

Coal output and electricity generation registered growth rates of 6.3 per cent and 1.4 per cent in January, respectively, against 7.9 per cent and 3.7 per cent, respectively, in the same month previous year. Finished steel production registered growth of 1.2 per cent in January against 2 per cent in the same period in the previous year.

During April-January 2008-09, crude oil production declined by 1.3 per cent against a rise 0.3 per cent in the same period previous year. Petroleum refinery production registered a growth rate of 3.1 per cent against 7.3 per cent in the previous year. During the ten months of the financial year, coal production grew by 8.8 per cent against to 4.8 per cent During April-January 2007-08.

Electricity generation and cement production registered a growth rate of 2.5 per cent and 7.1 per cent, respectively, as compared to 6.3 per cent and 7.4 per cent, respectively, in the previous year. Finished steel production also rose by 2.3 per cent during April-January 2008-09 compared to a 5.9 per cent rise in the corresponding period last year.
http://www.SikhPress.com