Infrastructure growth jumps to 7-month high of 6.7% in June; cement, refinery, coal sector performs better

New Delhi: Growth of eight core sectors expanded to a 7-month high of 6.7 percent in June due to better performance by cement, refinery and coal segments, as per official data released on Tuesday. The eight sectors, which also include fertilisers, steel, natural gas, electricity and crude oil, had expanded by 1 percent in June last year. The previous high rate of growth was recorded in November 2017 at 6.9 percent. The growth rate in May was 4.3 percent. [caption id="attachment_1471039" align="alignleft" width="380"]

Representational Image. AFP[/caption]As per the data released by the commerce and industry ministry, the expansion in cement, refinery products and coal was 13.2 percent, 12 percent and 11.5 percent respectively, year-on-year basis. Crude oil and natural gas registered a negative growth of 3.4 percent and 2.7 percent respectively in June compared to the year-ago period. The expansion in the electricity generation was 4 percent in June compared to 2.2 percent in the same month of the last fiscal. Steel sector, however, witnessed a slower growth of 4.4 percent compared to 6 percent in June 2017. The data revealed that the expansion rate in the fertiliser segment was 1 percent, better than the negative growth recorded in the year-ago month. During the April-June quarter of the current fiscal, the eight core industries recorded a growth of 5.2 percent as against 2.5 percent in the same period last year. These eight core industries comprise 40.27 percent of the weight of items included in the Index of Industrial Production (IIP).