Eight infrastructure sectors grew a faster pace of 6.7% in January against 3.4% in the year-ago month as petroleum refinery and cement output zoomed while steel power and coal production improved.
The eight core sectors -- coal, crude oil, natural gas, refinery products, fertilisers, steel, cement and electricity -- had grew by 4.2% in December and 7.4% in November this financial year.
Petroleum refinery production spurted 11% in January against a flat output in the year-ago month. Cement output jumped 20.7% in the month against 13.3% contraction in the year-ago period.
Electricity generation growth also fast paced to 8.2% in January against 5.2% in January 2017.
Coal sector output improved by 3% and steel production by 3.7% in January 2018.
Crude oil production however dropped 3.2%, fertilisers by 1.6% and natural gas by 1% in the month under review.
Cumulatively, the growth in the eight core sectors during April-January this fiscal slowed to 4.3% as against 5.1% in the same period last fiscal.
The growth in key sectors will have implications for the Index of Industrial Production (IIP) as these eight segments account for about 41% of the total factory output.
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