Eight infrastructure industries grew by 3.5 per cent in August this year, down from 4.4 per cent expansion witnessed in the same month last year.
The eight industries -- crude oil, petroleum refinery products, natural gas, fertilisers, coal, electricity, cement and finished steel-- have a weight of 37.90 per cent in the overall Index of Industrial Production (IIP).
Electricity, steel and cement output grew by 8.9 per cent, 7.7 per cent and 7.2 per cent in August, respectively, according to the provisional data released on Tuesday.
In the same month last year, electricity production had grown by 1.6 per cent, while steel and cement sectors had posted 10.8 per cent and 1.6
per cent expansion, respectively.
Crude oil production grew by 1.6 per cent in the month under the review against 15.2 per cent in the comparable period last year.
Petroleum refinery products output grew by 3.9 per cent in August.
In the same month last year, the sector had witnessed a contraction of 2.3 per cent.
Fertiliser output increased by 4.3 per cent in August. It was -5.7 per cent in the same period last year.
Natural gas and coal output contracted by 5.3 per cent and 15.3 per cent in August, respectively.
During April-August 2011-12, the growth of core industries slowed down to 5.3 per cent from 6.1 per cent in the same quarter last year.
