India's core sector grows 4.1 percent

Wednesday, 23 July 2003, 19:30 IST
Printer Print Email Email
NEW DELHI: India's infrastructure sector grew 4.1 percent during the April-June first quarter of 2003-04 fiscal, pushed by the finished steel, power and cement segments. The overall growth was however lower than in the corresponding period last year when it was 6.2 percent for the six core sectors, including crude petroleum, petroleum refined products and coal, according to the data made available by commerce ministry Tuesday. Only the electricity sector at 4.0 percent witnessed higher growth than 3.6 percent last year during the first quarter, while crude petroleum registered negative growth of 2.1 percent as against 7.2 percent in the corresponding period. Pushed by the government initiative on the highway and construction front, the demand for steel and cement has been showing continuing good growth. During April-June quarter, steel witnessed the highest 7.5 percent growth while cement demand grew by 4.9 percent. In both the cases the demand was however lower than the corresponding quarter last year when steel notched 9.2 percent growth and cement 8.1 percent. Buoyed by a good monsoon and consequent brighter outlook for the agriculture sector, the government expects the demand to pick up considerably in the second quarter leading to higher growth in core industrial sectors and agriculture.
Source: IANS