Infrastructure sector growth drops to 4.2%

Poor performance in almost all core areas of the infrastructure sector, including crude oil, power, cement and coal has led to a steep fall in six core infrastructure industries to 4.2 per cent in January, against 8.3 per cent in the corresponding period last year.

During April-January 2007-08, the growth rate of these core industries declined to 5.5 per cent against 8.9 per cent during the same period last fiscal.

According to official data released on Tuesday, the crude oil production registered a negative growth of 0.2 per cent in January, compared to 4.7 per cent last year.

The growth in coal production also declined to 4. 8 per cent as against 9.9 per cent.

Meanwhile, the electricity sector witnessed a growth of 3.3 per cent in January, against 8.3 per cent and cement sector registered a growth of 5.2 per cent compared to 7.2 per cent.