Vital sectors stage sharp recovery, grow at 6.7%

A sharp recovery by the cement and steel sectors propelled the six core infrastructure sectors to a 6.7 per cent growth during the first fiv...

A sharp recovery by the cement and steel sectors propelled the six core infrastructure sectors to a 6.7 per cent growth during the first five months of the current fiscal as against a mere one per cent during the same period last year.

As per provisional official data, overall growth rate during August 2002 was 6.9 per cent compared to a mere 1.3 per cent in the corresponding period last year.

The healthy growth during the month was mainly on account of 13.2 per cent growth registered in finished steel and 12.2 per cent growth in cement.

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Cumulative growth of the six sectors which includes crude petroleum, coal and electricity was 6.7 per cent during April-August 2002-03 compared to just one per cent in the corresponding period a year earlier.

All the six sectors registered positive growth rates during the first five months of the current fiscal as against a negative growth witnessed in steel and crude petroleum last year.

While the highest growth of 11.6 per cent was witnessed in the case of cement during April-August 2002-03, finished steel, crude petroleum, petroleum refinery and coal sectors registered growth rates of over six per cent.

During August 2002, barring crude petroleum and electricity all other sectors registered a growth of over five per cent. Cumulative production of crude petroleum during April-August 2002-03 was 13.8 million tonnes compared to 13.0 million tonnes in the corresponding period a year earlier, registering a moderate growth of 6.3 per cent.

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Production of petroleum refinery products increased 6.2 per cent touching 43.23 million tonnes during the first five months of the current fiscal compared to 40.7 million tonnes. Coal production touched 126.8 million tonnes during the five month period compared to 117.8 million tonnes, a healthy growth of 7.6 per cent. Growth in the cement sector was particularly impressive at 11.6 per cent with cumulative production of 48.1 million tonnes compared to 43.09 million tonnes in the same period during 2001-02.

The 8.9 per cent growth registered by the finished steel growth was equally impressive with a production of 13.5 million tonnes compared to 12.4 million tonnes the previous year.