Growth Rate of Eight Core Infrastructure Industries dipped to 2.2% in April 2012

As per the official data released on 31 May 2012, the growth rate of eight core infrastructure industries dipped to 2.2 per cent in April 2012 from 4.2 per cent in April 2011. The eight core sectors — crude oil, petroleum refinery products, coal, electricity, cement and finished steel has a weight of 37.9 per cent in the Index of Industrial Production (IIP). The dip in the growth of the core sector industries was attributed to poor performance by sectors such as natural gas, crude oil and fertilizers.
The overall infrastructure sector growth for March 2012 was revised downwards to 2.2 per cent as compared to a healthier 6.5 per cent expansion witnessed in the same month last year. Also, the cumulative growth of infrastructure industries was found to have slipped to 4.4 per cent, which is significantly lower than the 6.6 per cent increase seen in 2010-11.
As per the data released by the CSO, natural gas and crude oil output during April 2012 fell by 11.3 per cent and 1.3 per cent, respectively. Petroleum refinery products and fertiliser production also witnessed negative growth rates, contracting by 2.8 per cent and 9.3 per cent in April 2012. Slowdown in electricity generation was also witnessed in April. Electricity generation grew at a lower pace of 4.6 per cent during the month as compared to 6.4 per cent in April 2011.
However, three sectors- coal, steel and cement were noted to have fared better as compared to 2011. While coal production went up by 3.8 per cent in April 2012 as compared to an increase of 2.7 per cent witnessed in April 2011, the output of steel and cement grew by a healthy 5.8 per cent and 8.6 per cent during April 2012 as compared to negative growth rates of (-) 2.9 per cent and (-) 0.1 per cent witnessed by the two sectors in the corresponding period of 2011.