Infrastructure output up 8.7% in Feb

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New Delhi, April 3:: Core infrastructure industries' growth accelerated to 8.7 per cent in February 2008, reviving hopes that industrial production would speed up and arrest an economic slowdown.

Growth in coal, power and cement, three of the six industries that make up the core infrastructure sector, aided the healthy growth in February as compared to 7.6 per cent a year ago.

These industries, including steel, crude petroleum and petroleum refinery products, carry 26.68 weightage on the Index of Industrial Production. Hence, they could influence higher industrial growth and in turn GDP expansion, although Asian Development Bank has projected the Indian economy to moderate to 8 per cent this fiscal from 8.7 per cent in FY'08.

However, in April-February 2007-08 period, infrastructure growth remained lower at 5.6 per cent compared to 8.7 per cent a year ago due to less than five per cent growth in the four preceding months this fiscal. The infrastructure sector had grown by a poor 4.2 per cent in January 2008.

In February, coal industry growth improved to 11.7 per cent from 6.5 per cent, power to 9.6 per cent from 3.3 per cent and cement to 12.4 per cent from 5.8 per cent. However, crude oil dropped to 2.3 per cent in the month under review from 4.9 per cent in the same month last year, petroleum refinery products to 5.8 per cent from 11.3 per cent and finished steel to 8.2 per cent from 13.6 per cent.