By IANS,
New Delhi : Despite an 8.3 percent growth in cement production and 6 percent in coal output, the composite index for six core industries logged a mere 2 percent expansion in February, against 7 percent in the like month of last fiscal.
Data released by the commerce and industry ministry Friday showed that the cumulative growth in the six core infrastructure industries was 3 percent for the first 11 months of this fiscal, against 5.8 percent for the corresponding period of last fiscal.
The six core industries comprise crude oil, refined petroleum fuel, coal, electricity, cement and finished steel. They have a collective weight of 26.7 percent in the Index of Industrial Production (IIP).
Among them, production of crude oil fell 6.2 percent in February, as against a growth of 2.3 percent in the like month of last fiscal. Electricity generation was marginally better with a growth of 0.3 percent, against 9.8 percent in February last year.
The growth in cement production came on top of a 12.8 percent growth last February and that for coal also rose despite a high growth of 11.6 percent, the fresh data showed. The output of fuel products rose marginally by 0.5 percent against 5.8 percent.