New Delhi: Infrastructure sector, which consists eight core industries, posted a slower growth of 2.5 per cent in March due to contraction in natural gas and fertiliser production.
For 2013-14, the growth of the core sector growth dropped to 2.6 per cent against 6.5 per cent in the previous year. This is the slowest growth in over a decade.
The infra sector growth had shot up to five months high of 4.5 per cent in February. The eight core industries — fertilisers, cement, steel, electricity, crude oil, coal, petroleum refinery and natural gas — have a combined weight of 37.90 per cent in the Index of Industrial Production.
“The slack core sector in conjunction with the decline in merchandise exports point towards a likely industrial contraction in March 2014,” said Aditi Nayar, senior economist, at rating agency ICRA.
