Infrastructure industries expand by 5.3% in November

Core infrastructure industries grew by 5.3 %in November against meagre 0.8 %a year ago, in line with the recovery in industrial growth. Steel and petroleum refinery products turned the table by expanding 11.7 %and 4.9 %respectively in November, 2009. These segments had shown a contraction of 6.3 %and 1.1 %last year.

Cement marginally improved by 9 %against 8.7 in November 2008, the official data said. However, crude oil slipped into the negative territory by 1.6 per cent.

The coal sector grew at a lesser pace than last year. It expanded by 3.3 %against 9.7 per cent. Electricity growth too dropped to 1.8 %from 2.6 per cent.

The six core sector industries contribute about 26.7 %to the country's industrial production, which grew by 10.3 %in October.