Infra output rises 5.8% in Feb
India's current account deficit widens to 2.7 pc in December quarter
image for illustrative purpose
New Delhi: Production of eight infrastructure sectors expanded by 5.8 per cent in February against a contraction of 3.3 per cent in the same month last year on better show by coal, natural gas, refinery products and cement industries, according to official data released on Thursday.
Production of crude oil and fertiliser declined in February this year. The core sector industries had grown by 4 per cent in January. The growth rate of the eight infrastructure sectors — coal, crude oil, natural gas, refinery products, fertilisers, steel, cement and electricity — stood at 11 per cent during April-February this fiscal, as against a negative growth rate of 8.1 per cent during the same period last fiscal. According to the data, production of coal rose by 6.6 per cent, natural gas by 12.5 per cent, refinery products by 8.8 per cent, and cement by 5 per cent in February.
India's current account deficit widened to $23 billion or 2.7 per cent of the GDP in the December quarter, the Reserve Bank said on Thursday. The health of current account, which is a key indicator of a country's external strength, has deteriorated when compared to the preceding September quarter as well as the year-ago period. The deficit was at $9.9 billion or 1.3 per cent of the GDP in the second quarter of this fiscal while the same stood at $2.2 billion or 0.3 per cent of the GDP in the year-ago period, the data on Balance of Payments showed. The widening of the current account deficit for the December quarter was attributed by the central bank to pressures on the trade deficit front, with the gap on that front increasing to $60.4 billion due to rising imports. Net services receipts increased, both sequentially and on a year-on-year (y-o-y) basis, on the back of robust performance of net exports of computer and business services. For the first nine months of the current fiscal, the current account deficit came at 1.2 per cent of the GDP as against a surplus of 1.7 per cent in the April-December 2020 period, as per the data.
