The eight key infrastructure industries grew 8 per cent during September,the highest in the last 11 months,as sectors including coal,cement,and electricity posted robust production after several months of slow growth or contraction. The core sector growth during the same period last year was 8.3 per cent while it was 3.7 per cent during last month. This is also the highest growth during the current fiscal. According to the data released by the commerce and industry ministry,coal production registered a 12.5 per cent growth during the month as against 5.5 per cent recorded in August 2013. One of the reason for the growth is a rise in dispatch of coal,which increased 103 per cent as per the provisional figures. Railways also transported more 39.75 million tonnes of coal during the month compared to 39.29 tonnes of coal dispatched in August. Similarly,electricity generation rose 12.6 per cent during September as against 6.7 per cent during the last month. The growth in electricity generation,experts said,was due to better availability of coal and greater generation of hydro-electricity due to good monsoon along with new capacity creation in Maharashtra and Punjab. The cement sector also grew 11.5 per cent in the month as against 5.5 per cent in August. The experts said the reason for the jump in cement production is the beginning of festive season adding to the demand. However,the numbers have surprised analysts. The numbers are a surprise for us and we cant say that we are out of woods, Saugata Bhattacharya,chief economist,Axis Bank,said. Adding up The growth rate is higher than August,2013 when these sectors grew by 3.7% but it is lower than 8.3% recorded in September 2012. Core industries,with a weight of 38% in the IIP,have grown at 3.2% during the April-September period of this fiscal
