Infra growth up 6.5%, rebound seen

Hope rose anew of a strong industrial rebound with the country’s infrastructure sector output clocking a 6.5 per cent growth in June, the fastest in 18 months, data released on Thursday showed.

Hope rose anew of a strong industrial rebound with the country’s infrastructure sector output clocking a 6.5 per cent growth in June, the fastest in 18 months, data released on Thursday showed.

HT Image

The six infrastructure industries — crude oil, petroleum refining, coal, cement, finished steel and coal – account for 26.68 per cent of the total industrial production, raising expectations that the worst may be over for the manufacturing sector.

The government has identified infrastructure as the major growth engine, and is set to launch the world’s biggest public private partnership programme to build over 15,000 km of highways at a cost of over $70 billion.

Commerce and Industry Minister Anand Sharma said the timely release of stimulus packages has helped the infrastructure sector post a good growth rate last month despite the economic slowdown.

“It's clear that the government's stimulus packages and the budgetary proposals have had a positive impact. It's showing results now,” Sharma told reporters on the sidelines of a conference here.

“In fact many sectors like coal, steel, cement have registered a double digit growth which is a very encouraging sign,” he said.