New Delhi: After recording impressive performance in June, growth in eight core industries slowed down to 2.7 percent in July due to decline in production of crude oil, natural gas, refinery products, fertilisers and steel.
Growth in the infrastructure sector, which has a combined weight of about 38 percent in the Index of Industrial Production (IIP), stood at 5.3 percent in July 2013.
Crude oil, natural gas, refinery products, fertilisers and steel recorded a negative growth of 1 percent, 9 percent, 5.5 percent, 4.2 percent and 3.4 percent, respectively in July, according to the data of the Commerce and Industry Ministry.
However, coal, cement and electricity production grew by 6.2 percent, 16.5 percent and 11.2 percent, respectively during the month under review.
During April-July, growth in the eight core industries grew by 4.1 percent from 4.1 percent in the year-ago period.
Led by healthy growth in cement and electricity, the eight core industries grew to a nine- month high of 7.3 percent in June.
The low growth in July will have a bearing on the index of industrial production (IIP) which will be announced later this month.
Showing signs of sluggishness in the economy, growth rate of industrial production slowed to 3.4 percent in June, as against 5 percent in May, mainly due to lower output of consumer goods.
