Mumbai: The growth of six core sector industries declined to 4.5 per cent in October 2007 from 9.9 per cent in the same month last year, due mainly to a decline in production of crude petroleum and petroleum refinery products.

Production of crude petroleum registered a negative growth of 0.1 per cent in October this year compared to 9.3 per cent growth in the same period last year.

Petroleum refinery output grew by a meagre 2.8 per cent compared to a growth of 18.1 per cent in October 2006.

Growth of core sector industries - which have a 26.7 per cent weightage in the index of industrial production (IIP) - during the April-October period of the current fiscal also declined to 6.2 per cent from 8.9 per cent in the corresponding period of last year, official data showed.

Electricity generation also dipped to 4.2 per cent from 9.7 per cent in the same month last year.

Production of cement and finished steel also slipped in October 2007 while coal production saw a growth of 9.2 per cent.