The output of eight infrastructure industries recorded a growth of 2.3 per cent in April, much lower than 5.7 per cent in the same month last year, mainly due to contraction in the production of crude oil, natural gas and fertiliser.
The eight core industries’ output growth in April 2013 was also lower than the March 2013 growth rate of 3.2 per cent.
The eight industries — crude oil, natural gas, cement, coal, electricity, steel, petroleum refinery products and fertilisers — have a weight of 37.9 per cent in the overall index of industrial production.
In 2012-13, the eight core industries’ output grew 2.6 per cent against 5 per cent in 2011-12.
While natural gas production was down 17.4 per cent in April 2013, crude oil output was down 1.2 per cent. Coal output was up 3.1 per cent, cement 8.3 per cent and petroleum refinery products 5.6 per cent. Fertiliser production also declined by 2.4 per cent, while steel output rose by 1.9 per cent from 2.3 per cent in April 2012.
Electricity generation grew 3.1 per cent in April 2013 compared with 5.4 per cent growth in the same month last year.