Led by poor performance in the crude oil production, key infrastructure sector continued to present a grim picture with its June growth plummeting to 4.7 per cent, thus translating into a lower growth of 4.1 per cent in the first quarter of this year. The growth in six key infrastructure industries — crude petroleum, petroleum refinery products, coal, electricity, cement and finished steel during June 2002 stood as high as 7 per cent and the overall growth rate stood at over 6 per cent in April-June last fiscal. Due to a whopping fall in crude petroleum to mere (-) 2.1 per cent in April-June 2003 as compared to 7.2 per cent in the corresponding quarter of 2002-03, the overall growth in key infrastructure industries was a mere 4.1 per cent against 6.2 per cent in the first quarter of 2002-03.Except electricity, all the other five infrastructure industries put up a poor show during the first quarter of this fiscal. The petroleum refinery products registered a mere 3.5 per cent growth in April-June 2003 as compared to 6.3 per cent in the corresponding period a year ago. In June, the petroleum refinery products, however, registered an impressive 4.6 per cent growth. as against 2.6 per cent in June 2002.
