The decline in the growth rate of six core infrastructure industries — power, coal, steel, cement, crude petroleum and petroleum refinery products — coupled with ongoing sluggishness in crucial manufacturing sector is likely to pull down overall growth rate of the economy, analysts feel.

However, these six core infrastructure industries having combined weight of 26.7 per cent in the Index of Industrial Production (IIP), grew by faster 8.7 per cent in February this year thus rekindling hopes of a revival in industrial production growth, which in turn will spur overall growth rate.

IIP slump

The six core industries had posted a lower growth rate of 4.2 per cent in January 2008.

Analysis of data shows that growth rate of crude oil production with a weight of 4.17 per cent in the IIP slumped to abysmal low of 0.4 per cent during April-February 2007-08 compared to 5.8 per cent during the same period of 2006-07.

The growth rate of petroleum refinery production with a weight of 2 per cent in the IIP declined to 7.2 per cent during April-February 2007-08 compared to high of 12.8 per cent during the same period of 2006-07.

The growth rate of coal production with a weight of 3.2 per cent in the IIP grew marginally by 5.6 per cent during April-February 2007-08 compared to 5.3 per cent during the same period of 2006-07. The growth rate of electricity generation with a weight of 10.17 per cent in the IIP declined marginally by 6.6 per cent during April-February 2007-08 compared to 7.2 per cent during the same period of 2006-07.

The growth rate of cement production with a weight of 1.99 per cent in the IIP dropped to 7.5 per cent during April-February 2007-08 compared to an increase of 9.5 per cent during the same period of 2006-07.  The growth rate of finished steel production with a weight of 5.13 per cent in the IIP sharply dropped to 5 per cent during April-February 2007-08 as against high of 11.3 per cent during the same period of 2006-07.