Mining output fell in 2000s on higher imports: Report

The mining sector witnessed a marked fall in output growth rate in the 2000s as mainly increased domestic demand for crude oil was being met through imports, says a report.
"... The mining sector experienced a marked fall in output growth rate in the 2000s, which is traceable to incremental domestic demand for crude oil being met from imports rather than domestic production," the report released by RBI today said.
The report is based on trends in output growth, total factor productivity growth and labour productivity growth during 1980-2008 in six broad sectors.
"The main finding is that since 2000 there has been a revival of productivity growth in many industries comprising the Indian economy.

"Comparing the two sub-periods 1980-1999 and 2000-2008, the majority of the disaggregated industries are found to show faster TFP (total factor productivity) growth in the second period," it said.
However, there was a decline in productivity performance in agriculture, construction and mining and quarrying.

Sectors such as manufacturing, electricity, gas & power and services showed improvements in productivity.
"Similar results hold for labour productivity growth. It indicates that nearly two decades of policy reforms in the areas of trade and industry have made a difference."
It showed that the gross value added (GVA), which is the value of output minus the value of intermediate inputs, rose by about 2 percentage points between 1980-99 and 2000-08, showing a rise from 5.2 per cent per annum during 1980-99 to 7.6 per cent per annum during 2000-08.

"The growth acceleration was rooted in manufacturing, construction and services," it said.
Growth of manufacturing sector stood at 6.13 per cent per annum during the period under study.
"However, the growth record of agriculture reveals one of the major weaknesses of the Indian economy," it said.