Core sector grows 6.6% in December 2010

The country’s infrastructure sector output grew 6.6% in December from a year earlier, accelerating from the upwardly revised 3% in November. The December data augurs well for overall industrial output numbers which would be released later in the month. Industrial output data has remained volatile in the past few months. The only concern in Monday’s data was the output of the cement sector which fell 2.2% in December. The infrastructure sector—spanning crude oil, petroleum refinery products, coal, cement and steel-—accounts for 26.7% of the country’s index of industrial production. Annual factory output in Nov slowed to an 18-month low of 2.7% from a year earlier. The slowdown in Nov had raised concerns about the strength of industrial output and some economists had said the impact of interest rate increases was hitting industrial growth.