Jan core sector growth drops to 1.9%

Infrastructure growth slowed to 1.9% in January 2005 from 7.4% in January 2004.

The core sector, comprising crude, refinery, coal, cement, electricity and steel, grew by 5.1% during the first ten months of the current fiscal as against 5.9% in the year-ago period.

All the core sector industries, except cement, registered a decline in growth in January, according to official data released today.

Output of refined petroleum products was up 0.2% (as against 4.2% in the year-ago period), electricity generation by 2.4% (from 6.2%) and coal by 2.8% (from 8.2%).

The growth figures would have been lower had it not been for the impressive performance of the cement sector, which grew by 9.6% from 7.5% in the year-ago period.