Infrastructure output growth rises in March

The sturdy performance of fertilizers and refinery products has increased the country’s infrastructure output growth rate. The rate bounced back to 6.4 percent in the month of March to a 16-month high in the fiscal period 2015-16.

Eight main sectors such as crude oil, coal, natural gas, fertilizers, refinery products, cement, steel, and electricity grew by 2.7 percent for the fiscal year 2015-16. However, the growth rate has decreased from 4.5 percent in 2014-15.

The decrease in the growth rate was seen regardless of the rise in the sectors in March. These sectors comprise nearly 38 percent of the total industrial production. Last year in March 2015, the growth rate of these eight sectors dwindled by 0.7 percent. The performance of the sectors has been best in March 2016 since November 2014, after the expansion of the sectors by 6.7 per cent.

According to a data released by the ministry of commerce and industry, the production of fertilisers, refinery products, electricity and cement increased by 22.9 percent, 10.8 percent, 11.3 percent and 11.9 percent in the month of March.

The production of coal grew by 1.7 percent as against 4.5 percent recorded in March 2015.The production of steel grew by 3.4 for the current fiscal as against negative 6.5 percent during March 2015.

Natural gas and crude oil showed negative growth during the reviewing month.

Speaking about the growth rate in the industrial sectors, ICAI said that the picking up of the core sectors in the month of March comes as a “positive surprise.”