Infrastructure sector grows 8.7 per cent in May

Mumbai: The country's infrastructure sector recorded an year-on-year growth of 8.7 per cent in May on the back of an impressive performance by four core industries — steel, cement, petroleum products and electricity — despite a decline in production of crude oil and a drop in growth rate of coal.

The index of six infrastructure industries, having a combined weight of 26.7 per cent in the index of industrial production (IIP), increased to 234.1 from 215.3 in the same month last year, when the growth was 7.2 per cent, commerce and industry ministry said in a statement.

During the first two months of the current fiscal year (2007-08), cumulative growth in the core sector index touched 8.1 per cent compared to 7.2 per cent in the corresponding period of the previous fiscal. In April, the index had risen 7.4 per cent.

Of the six industries, production of cement grew 9.4 per cent in May as against 6.8 per cent in the same month in 2006. Similarly, petroleum refinery registered a production growth of 14.9 per cent as compared to 12.1 per cent in May last year.

Electricity production also went up 9.3 per cent in May (5.1 per cent), while finished steel production was up 11.8 per cent (10.7 per cent).

On the other hand, the production of crude oil went down by 1.6 per cent in May while the growth of coal production declined to 0.9 per cent from 8.3 per cent in the same period of previous year.