With natural gas and cement showing decline in production, the growth of eight core infrastructure industries slowed down to 5.3 per cent in May against 7.4 per cent a year ago.
The core 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, according to the provisional data released on Thursday.
With addition of two sectors -- fertilisers and natural gas --
While six sectors showed positive growth, the pace of expansion declined in the case of refinery products and steel.
Natural gas and cement showed a negative growth of 9.6 per cent and 2.3 per cent, respectively. However, sectors like crude oil, electricity, fertilizers and coal showed an improvement in growth.
During April-May 2011, these sectors grew at a lesser pace by 4.9 per cent compared to 7.9 per cent in the same period last year.
