Fuelled by surge in crude oil and finished steel output, growth in the six core infrastructure industries improved to 6.8 per cent in February from 4.2 per cent in the same month last fiscal.

However, compared to January when infrastructure sector, that has 26.7 per cent weight in the country's Index of Industrial Production (IIP) grew by by 7.2 per cent, the performance in February was a shade lower.

During the April 2010-February 2011 period, the six core sectors - crude oil, petroleum refinery products, coal, electricity, cement and finished steel - registered an expansion of 5.7 per cent compared to 5.4 per cent in the same period last year, according to the Industry Ministry data released here today.

Crude oil and finished steel output grew by 12.2 per cent and 11.5 per cent in February from 4 per cent and (- 0.2) per cent respectively in the same period last year, according to the data released by the Industry Ministry today.

Petroleum refinery products too registered a healthy growth of 3.2 per cent in February from a 0.7 per cent in the corresponding period last year.

However, according to economists, this month's core sector growth will not have much positive impact on the February IIP numbers, likely to be released next month.

"It (February core sector growth) will not have much positive impact on IIP," credit ratings agency CRISIL Principal Economist D K Joshi said.

Growth in factory output slowed down to 3.7 per cent in January 2011 from 16.8 per cent in the same period last year.

Electricity generation grew by 7.2 per cent in the month under review compared to 6.9 per cent in February 2010.

However, coal output contracted by 5.7 per cent in contrast to 6.7 per cent expansion in February 2010. Growth in cement production slowed down to 6.5 per cent in the month under review from 7.9 per cent in the same period last year.

During the 11 months of this fiscal, the crude oil sector output grew by 11.9 per cent, as against a 0.3 per cent contraction in the same period last fiscal.

Growth in coal output slowed to 0.1 per cent during April 2010-February 2011 from 7.9 per cent in the corresponding period last year, the data said.

Electricity and cement production also slowed down to 5.4 per cent and 4.3 per cent, respectively, during the 11 months of the ongoing financial year from 6 per cent and 10.8 per cent in the same period last year.

The data further showed that petroleum refinery output expanded by 2.5 per cent during the period -- as against 0.4 per cent contraction in April 2009-February 2010, while finished steel production rose by 8.1 per cent, compared to 5.2 per cent growth in the corresponding period of the previous year.