According to a review undertaken by the industry ministry, the crude petroleum sector was the worst performer during October recording a negative growth of (-) 6.4 per cent followed by steel (-) 5.4 per cent, cement (-) 5.0 per cent and coal (-) 1.7 per cent.

As far as April-October 1998 was concerned, the six sectors recorded an overall growth of 1.7 per cent as compared to 5.9 per cent during the corresponding period last year.

The sectors which performed poorly during the first seven months were steel (- 3.1 per cent) and crude petroleum (-3.7 per cent). electricity, coal, petroleum refinery products and coal recorded positive growth rates of 6.3 per cent, 2.0 per cent, 2.3 per cent and 2.7 per cent respectively.

With the April-October 1998 recording a dismal growth rate of 1.7 per cent, the infrastructure sector was likely to record the worst performanceduring the last five year.

It may be recalled that these six sectors recorded a high growth of 11.0 per cent during 1994-95 which gradually declined to 10.5 per cent in the next year. Thereafter it slumped to 3.7 per cent during 1996-97 to recover marginally at 5.1 per cent during 1997-98.

With now only five months left and prospects of economy recovery still bleak, it is unlikely that these sectors will stage any dramatic recovery during the remaining months of the current fiscal.