NEW DELHI (Reuters) – India’s infrastructure output expanded 3.6% year-on-year in March, its slowest pace in five months, in part dragged by a contraction in electricity and cement output, government data showed on Friday.
The country’s infrastructure output last grew at a slower pace, of 0.1% year-on-year, in October 2022.
Infrastructure output—which comprises eight sectors, including coal and electricity, accounting for nearly 40% of industrial output—rose 7.6% in the April 2022 to March 2023 financial year, the data showed.
“The output of some of the sectors is likely to have been dampened by the unseasonal rainfall, (including sectors) such as electricity and cement which displayed a YoY contraction in March, along with crude oil,” said Aditi Nayar, an economist at ICRA.
The output from sectors such as coal, fertilisers and steel displayed a healthy expansion, in excess of 8%, in March, which is encouraging, Nayar added.
(Reporting by Shivangi Acharya; Editing by Savio D’Souza)