India's infrastructure growth slips to 9.6%

India's infrastructure growth slipped to 9.6 per cent in March 2008 from 10.5 per cent in the same month last year.
Growth in six core infrastructure industries slowed down to 5.6 per cent during the fiscal 2007-08 from 9.2 per cent in the previous year.
Barring cement and finished steel production, the other industries -- crude oil, petroleum refinery products, coal and electricity -- registered a decline in growth in March 2008.
Sluggish performance of the manufacturing sector pulled down growth in overall industrial production to a six-year low of 3 per cent in March this year from 14.8 per cent in the year-ago period.
The slowdown in core growth might set back the nation's economic growth, as the 2007-08 Economic Survey had pointed out.