Growth of infrastructure sector slows in May

Growth in eight key infrastructure sectors slowed in May to a 10 month low of 3.6%, the government data showed on Monday.

These eight infrastructure sectors – steel, coal, power, refinery products, natural gas, crude oil, fertilizer and cement – have a significant bearing on the country's factory output and a 40.27% weight in the index of industrial production.

A slower industrial production in turn has an adverse impact on the overall growth of the economy.

The growth steel declined to 0.5% in May, compared with 3.8% in April. For electricity it was less than half of the previous month at 3.5%. In may electricity had grown at 8.2%.

Crude oil registered a negative growth of 2.9%, so as natural gast at 1.4% in May.

However, output of coal grew 12.1% and and fertiliser 8.4%.

This is the lowest growth rate since July 2017 when infrastructure industries had expanded by 2.9%.

A pick up in domestic demand due to government's commitment to build smart cities and housing for all by 2022 is expected to see steel and cement production up in the coming months although the risk of trade wars could affect exports and imports.