The growth of key infrastructure industries slowed down to 2.3 per cent in December 2008 from 3.2 per cent a year-ago, mainly on account of drop in output of steel and crude oil.

Growth rate in the six core industries - crude oil, petroleum and refinery products, coal, electricity, cement and finished steel - declined to 3.5 per cent during April- December period from 5.9 per cent in the corresponding period last fiscal.

The government on Friday released the core sector data, having a weight of 26.7 per cent on the index of industrial production.

Crude oil production remained in the negative territory, showing a decline of 0.3 per cent in the month under review, from 1.4 per cent in the same period last year.

Reeling under demand recession, steel took the hit and registered a negative growth of 0.8 per cent from 1.8 per cent in December 2007.

Electricity generation too dipped to 0.7 per cent in December 2008 from 3.9 per cent in the same period previous year.

Petroleum refinery and coal production registered a growth rate of 3 per cent and 9.4 per cent from 1.9 per cent and 8.4 per cent, respectively, in December 2007.

Cement production registered a growth rate of 11.6 per cent in December 2008 compared to 4.4 per cent in the corresponding period last year.