New Delhi, Dec. 27: A sharp decline in five of the six core sector industries pulled down the growth of the country’s infrastructure sector to 3.0 per cent in November this year from 5.7 per cent in the same month of the previous year.

Only the petroleum refining industry last month posted a higher growth rate, though marginally. Refining output grew by 1.3 per cent in November against 1.0 per cent in the same month last year.

Crude oil production fell sharply to register a negative growth of 8.6 per cent compared with 0.9 per cent in the corresponding previous month. The fire at ONGC’s Mumbai High offshore field and the blow out at an oil field of Oil India in Assam coupled with frequent disruptions in production following poor law and order in the state resulted in the lower crude production.

The decline in domestic production came at a time when the global crude prices are soaring high.

Steel output growth also slowed down to 5.3 per cent compared with 10.2 per cent in the same month a year ago.

Cement production grew by only 7.8 per cent (11.4 per cent), electricity by 2.7 per cent (3.4 per cent), and coal production posted a 7.1 per cent growth (7.3 per cent) in November this year.

The cumulative figure for the April-November period shows that most of the core sectors hit a slow lane. The cumulative growth rate declined to 4.4 per cent from 6.7 per cent in the corresponding period a year ago.

Except for the cement sector, the other five sectors posted lower growth rates during the first eight months of the current fiscal.

Cement production rose by 10.6 per cent in as against 6.7 per cent a year ago.