The overall performance of infrastructure industries measured by the composite index of seven infrastructure industries slightly weakened during the first nine months of FY06. According to official sources, these industries are electricity generation, natural gas, basic metals, petroleum products, crude oil, cement and coal.
The Infrastructure Industries Index registered an increase of 8.5 percent in Jul-Mar FY06 marginally less than 8.8 percent growth during the corresponding quarters of the previous year.
This deceleration was mainly attributed to a fall in the production of basic metal and crude oil during Jul-Mar FY06, which was partially offset by positive contributions by electricity generation, coal, natural gas, cement and petroleum products.
During the first three quarters of FY06, the User based Quantum Index (UBQI) registered a growth of 8.0 percent, which was significantly lower than the 15.4 percent growth witnessed in the corresponding period of last year.
According to official sources, the slowdown in all sub-indices (except of basic sub-group) of UBQI imitates the development seen in the LSM and mining & quarrying sub-sector.
The basic goods recorded the acceleration in output in Jul-Mar FY06, mainly due to acceleration in electricity generation and some industries of mining & quarrying, while the consumer goods, intermediate goods and capital goods industries witnessed a deceleration in growth compared to the corresponding period last year.
The biggest slowdown of 16.9 percentage points was observed in the capital goods industries during Jul-Mar FY06 over the same period of the previous year. The major contribution in the slowdown of capital goods stemmed from the decline in the production of buses, power looms and electric motors as well as deceleration in the production of tractors, LCVs, electric transformers and wheat thrashers during the first three-quarters of FY06.
Similar to capital goods, a deceleration was recorded in the growth of intermediate goods in Jul-Mar FY06. Most of the slowdown in the growth of output of intermediate goods came from the lower production of textile products, basic metal industry, petroleum products, fertilisers' products, etc.
Consumer goods group grew at a rate of 10.5 percent in Jul-Mar FY06 as against a growth of 17.6 percent during the corresponding period of the preceding year.
This slow growth is attributed to both durable as well as non-durable sub-groups.
The decline in the production of sugar, vegetable ghee & cooking oil, and in some items of the chemical group were the main reasons for the deceleration in the consumer non-durable group. Similarly, the deceleration in electronics products and rubber industry output slowed down the growth of consumer durable goods in Jul-Mar FY06.