Infrastructure growth crashes to 10-month low of 3.6% in May

New Delhi: Growth of eight infrastructure industries dropped to a 10-month low of 3.6 per cent in May due to a decline in production of crude oil and natural gas.

The eight sectors, which also include coal, refinery products, fertilisers, steel and cement, had expanded by 3.9 per cent in May 2017, according to the data released by the commerce and industry ministry on Monday.

This is the lowest growth rate since July 2017 when infrastructure industries had expanded by 2.9 per cent. The growth rate in April was 4.6 per cent.

Crude oil and natural gas registered a negative growth of 2.9 per cent and 1.4 per cent respectively in May compared to the year-ago period.

The growth rate of refinery products, steel and electricity declined to 4.9 per cent, 0.5 per cent and 3.5 per cent in May from 5.4 per cent, 3.8 per cent and 8.2 per cent respectively in May 2017.

However, output of coal and fertiliser grew by 12.1 per cent and 8.4 per cent, respectively, in May over the year-ago month.

During April-May this fiscal, the eight core industries recorded a growth of 4.1 per cent as against 3.3 per cent in the same period last year.

Meanwhile, the Nikkei India Manufacturing Purchasing Managers Index (PMI) rose from 51.2 in May to 53.1 in June, registering the fastest improvement since December 2017.