Core Sector Registers Growth Rate Of 8 Per Cent

The infrastructure sector recorded a healthy growth rate of 8 per cent for the April 1999-January 2000 period. Driven by petroleum refinery products, cement and steel, the sector recorded a sharp rise in the growth rates from 2.9 per cent level between April-January 1998-99 .

The six infrastructure industries, including, electricity, coal, steel, crude petroleum, petroleum refinery products and cement account for 26.68 per cent of the Index of Industrial Production.

This strong growth in six infrastructure sectors is despite a slower growth of 5.2 per cent in January 2000 due to poor performance of electricity and crude sectors. Crude petroleum recorded a deceleration of 10.2 per cent in this period, while the electricity sector showed only a 2.1 per cent growth rate.

For January 2000, the steel sector showed a 8.6 per cent growth rate, while petroleum refinery recorded an impressive 38 per cent growth rate. Coal grew by 4.5 per cent and cement by 11 per cent.

While steel sector rose by 11.7 per cent in April-January this fiscal, cement sector grew by 15.3 per cent and petroleum refinery by 23.6 per cent, an official release said.

However, crude petroleum sector declined by 1.4 per cent while electricity sector rose by 6.9 per cent and coal sector recorded a measly growth of 0.1 per cent.