Updated on Friday, November 07, 2008, 00:00 IST

New Delhi, Nov 07: Growth in India's infrastructure industries slowed down to 5.1 percent in September from 5.8 percent a year ago, but bounced back from a dismal 2.3 percent in August this year.

The growth in six core industries - crude oil, petroleum refinery products, coal, electricity, cement and finished carbon steel - contracted also for the April-September period to 3.9 percent from 6.9 percent in the first half of the previous year.

The infrastructure industries have a weight of 26.7 percent in the overall index of industrial production.

The IIP figures for September will be released in the next few days.

Growth in core industries dipped in August, tracking the overall IIP, which dipped to 1.3 percent.

Although crude oil production declined by 0.4 percent, the performance in September is slightly better than the same month last year.

Refinery products too showed a downward trend of 2.8 percent from 6.9 percent in September 2007. Finished carbon steel also registered a lower growth of 5.8 percent, compared with 9.5 percent.

However, coal output showed better performance at 10.7 percent in September 2008 from 6.3 percent, while cement production rose by 7.9 percent from 5.4 percent.

Electricity generation rose by merely 4.4 percent in the period, against 4.3 percent in September 2007.

Bureau Report