Dismal performance by electricity, crude petroleum, coal and cement sectors pulled down the growth in infrastructure to just 2.6 per cent last month compared to a robust 10.2 per cent in July 2002.
The infrastructure industries grew by 3.6 per cent during the first four months of this fiscal compared to 7.2 per cent in April-July 2002.
According to the data released by the commerce and industry ministry, the aggregate growth of crude petroleum, refinery, coal, electricity, cement and finished steel slipped to 2.6 per cent in July from 4.7 per cent in June, 4 per cent in May and 3.9 per cent in April this fiscal.
The main reason for low growth in infrastructure was the fall in electricity generation by 1.9 per cent in July compared to a growth of 6 per cent in the year-ago month.
The crude petroleum production also grew sluggishly by 0.4 per cent last month compared to 8.6 per cent in July 2002, while coal output was up by only 2.7 per cent compared to 12.6 per cent in the last year.
Growth in the cement sector was only 3.4 per cent last month compared to 23.4 per cent in the year-ago period, while finished steel output was up by 7.7 per cent compared to 14.4 per cent in the last year.
The only silver lining was the petroleum refinery sector, which recorded a 7.5 per cent growth last month as against 5.4 per cent in July 2002.
All the six core sectors recorded lower growth during April-July this year.
The crude petroleum output fell by 1.5 per cent during the first four months compared to 7.6 per cent in April-July 2002.
Petroleum refinery production was lower at 2.1 per cent in the four months as against 6.1 per cent in the same period last year.
Electricity generation grew by 2.7 per cent till July when compared with 4.2 per cent in the year-ago period.
The coal sector growth dipped to 3.4 per cent during the early months compared to 8 per cent in April-July 2002.
Cement production grew by 4.5 per cent till July this fiscal when compared with 11.5 per cent in the year ago period.
The growth in finished steel production also came down to 7.6 per cent during the first four months compared to 10.5 per cent in April-July 2002.
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