A substantial slowdown in coal, steel and petroleum refining output dragged overall growth in six core infrastructure sectors to 6.3 per cent in July 2007 compared to 10.9 per cent in the same month of last year.
Core infrastructure industries of crude petroleum, petroleum refinery products, coal, electricity, cement and finished steel all registered a decline in growth.
During April-July 2007-08, growth rate of the six sectors declined to 6.1 per cent as compared to 8.7 per cent during the corresponding period of 2006-07.
While crude petroleum production registered a negative growth of 0.9 per cent in July 2007 from 4.1 per cent, petroleum refinery production dipped to 4.6 per cent from a growth of 12.6 per cent in July 2006.
Coal production registered a growth of 1.1 per cent, a significant decline from the 9.1 per cent growth in July 2006. Electricity generation, cement and finished carbon steel also posted a dip in growth rate.
The slowdown in core sector could have a direct bearing on economic growth, as well as indirect adverse effect on other sectors which use inputs from these industries.
Infrastructure sectors constitute 26.7 per cent of the Index of Industrial Production, which also registered a fall in growth rate to 7.1 per cent during July this year compared to 13.2 per cent in the same month a year ago.
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