Photo used for representation purpose only. Core sectors’ output growth was led by double-digit upticks in cement also.
| Photo Credit: The Hindu
India’s eight core sectors’ output growth spurted to a three-month high of 6.7% in February, led by double-digit upticks in coal, natural gas and cement even as fertilisers’ production fell 9.5% to record the sharpest contraction since May 2021.
January’s Index of Core Industries (ICI) was revised to reflect a 4.1% rise, compared with the previous estimate of 3.6%, but that remained the slowest growth in 15 months. This is the second month in a row that fertilisers output dipped year-on-year, and marks the first such streak in two years.
The growth of eight core sectors — coal, crude oil, natural gas, refinery products, fertiliser, steel, cement and electricity — was 4.1% in January.
It was 7.4% in February 2023.
Cumulatively also, the growth rate in the output of these sectors slowed to 7.7 per cent in April-January this fiscal against 8.2 per cent in April-February 2022-23.
The output growth of fertiliser was in the negative zone.
The eight core sectors contribute 40.27% to the country’s Index of Industrial Production (IIP).
(with inputs from PTI)
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