Core sector growth slides to 0.5 per cent

According to the monthly data released on Tuesday, July was an exceptional month where actual production of crude oil, coal and electricity generation declined. These sectors have a high weightage in the infrastructure index, which has resulted in the poor performance during July 2005.

During this period, crude oil production dipped by 4 per cent compared to the 0.2 per cent growth in July last fiscal. Incidentally, actual crude oil production declined to 2.75 million tonnes in July as against 2.86 mt a year ago.

Interestingly, the cumulative growth in the infrastructure sectors for April-July 2005-06 also dipped to 4.2 per cent as against 8.9 per cent during the same period last fiscal. Though the growth rate for July 2005 was positive, the sector posted a negative growth 0.6 per cent in February 2004-05.