Core sector growth dips to a paltry 3.9 per cent in April
New Delhi: Decline in cement and crude petroleum pulled down the infrastructure sector growth to 3.9 per cent in April, against 5.4 per cent in the year-ago period. The other segments of the core sector are petroleum refining, coal, electricity and finished steel. The six segments of the sector have a weightage of 26.68 per cent in the index of industrial production. Crude petroleum registered a -1.9 per cent growth in April, as compared to 2.7 per cent in April 2002. Since February this year, when it grew 5 per cent, crude petroleum was on the decline, falling to 0.9 per cent in March and in April showing negative growth. Its IIP weightage is 4.17 per cent.
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Govt retains export target at 12 per cent
New Delhi: The commerce ministry has fixed the export growth target at 12 per cent for the current fiscal, same as in the last fiscal. In value terms, the target works out to $57.8 billion against the achievement of $51.7 billion during 2002-03. The target has been fixed after taking into account the prevailing global economic and trading environment, the outlook for this fiscal as projected by the international agencies tracking global economic developments and the perceptions of the exporting community, says an official release issued here on Thursday. The release further says the target has been fixed after extensive consultations with the export promotion councils and commodity boards.
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EPF Panel favours 0.5 per cent cut in interest rate
New Delhi: Despite stiff opposition from labour minister Sahib Singh Verma, a sub-committee of the Employees Provident Fund Organisation on Thursday recommended at least a 0.5 per cent cut in interest rate on EPF from the existing 9.5 per cent.
“We have recommended 8-9 per cent interest on EPF (from the present 9.5 per cent)”, EPFO’s finance and investment sub-committee chairman and additional secretary Baleshwar Rai told the press after the meet. The recommendation of the sub-committee of central board of trustees of EPFO, comes in the wake of 1 per cent cut in interest rates to 8 per cent in special deposits scheme, which comprise over 80 per cent of the Rs 1,40,000 crore EPFO corpus and a general lowering of bank rates. The meeting took into consideration various interest slabs and calculated the surplus and deficit on its interest suspense account accordingly.
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Exports to China double
New Delhi: Exports to China have doubled during the past two years from $828.68 million in 2000-01 to $1,662.86 million during 2002-03 (April-February). The country’s exports to China have also shown a record 96.48 per cent growth during 2002-03 (April-February) compared to the same period during 2001-02, says an official release. The items which have shown an impressive growth in the Chinese market during 2002-03 (April-February) include primary and semi-finished iron and steel (3,823.98 per cent), iron and steel bar/rod etc (826.75 per cent), man-made staple fibre (703.83 per cent), non-ferrous metals (613.07 per cent), processed minerals (521.60 per cent) and woollen yarn, fabrics, made ups etc (309.88 per cent).
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