According to a review undertaken by the industry ministry, the crude petroleum sector was the worst performer during October, recording a negative growth of (-) 6.4 per cent followed by steel (-) 5.4 per cent, cement (-) 5.0 per cent and coal (-) 1.7 per cent.

The sectors which recorded growth were petroleum refinery products (5.0 per cent) and electricity (0.1 per cent).

The index of these six sectors with a total weightage of 26.68 per cent in the Index of Industrial Production (IIP) stood at 131.5 during October, 1998, compared with 134.7 a year ago.

As far as April-October 1998 was concerned, the six sectors recorded an overall growth of 1.7 per cent, compared with 5.9 per cent during the corresponding period last year.

The sectors which performed poorly during the first seven months were steel (-3.1 per cent) and crude petroleum (-3.7 per cent). Electricity, coal,petroleum refinery products and coal recorded positive growth rates of 6.3 per cent, 2 per cent, 2.3 per cent and 2.7 per cent, respectively.

With April-October 1998 recording a dismal growth rate of 1.7 per cent, the infrastructure sector is likely to record its worst performance in the last five years.

It may be recalled that these six sectors recorded a high growth of 11 per cent during 1994-95 which gradually declined to 10.5 per cent in the next year. Thereafter, it slumped to 3.7 per cent during 1996-97 before recovering marginally to 5.1 per cent during 1997-98.

With only five months left and the prospects of economic recovery still bleak, it is unlikely that these sectors will stage any dramatic recovery during the remaining months of the current fiscal.