After touching five-year low of 0.3 per cent in October,growth in key infrastructure output bounced back in November to 6.8 per cent,thus brightening prospects for industrial production for the month. Riding on a stellar growth in cement,electricity and refinery products,the eight infrastructure sectors which have weightage of 38 per cent in the overall Index of Industrial Production (IIP),considerably improved year-on-year as well from 3.7 per cent in November 2010. However,due to lagging performance in the previous months,the April-November growth of the core industries stood at 4.6 per cent as against 5.6 per cent in the same period last fiscal,according to the data released today. Except for crude oil,natural gas and fertilisers,all other segments registered healthy growth in November. The maximum growth was witnessed in cement which expanded by 16.6 per cent,while there was a contraction of 4.3 per cent in the same period last fiscal. Electricity and steel output grew by 14.1 per cent and 5.1 per cent against 3.5 per cent and 7.6 per cent,respectively,in the same month last year. Coal and petroleum refinery products growth went up by 4.9 per cent and 11.2 per cent in November 2011. However,crude oil and natural gas output contracted by 5.6 per cent and 10.1 per cent from a positive growth of 17 per cent and 5.5 per cent,year-on-year,respectively. CRISIL Chief Economist D K Joshi said,"The rebound in eight infrastructure sectors is likely to have a positive impact on the IIP numbers." The core sector,in October 2011,registered a dismal growth of 0.3 per cent. This slowdown in the industry output was evident from the Gross Domestic Product (GDP) figures. The economic growth stood at 6.9 per cent the lowest in the past nine quarters - during the July-September quarter. The economic growth in the first half of the current fiscal slowed down to 7.3 per cent from 8.6 per cent in the year ago period. India's industrial production contracted by 5.1 per cent in October year-on-year.
