The core sector growth in India’s Index of Industrial Production was at 5.3% for February 2018, the government said today.
In January, the growth was 6.1%.
The highest growth was seen in refinery output (7.8%) and cement (22.9%), while crude oil and natural gas production went down.
With this, the overall growth for the IIP in the first ten months of the financial year is 4.3%, compared to a growth of 4.7% seen in the first ten months of the previous financial year.
Nevertheless, this is higher than the full-year growth of 3% seen in FY16, 2.6% seen in FY14 and 3.8% seen in FY13, but lower than the 4.9% growth reported in FY15.
The performance of the individual core sector industries were as follows.
Crude Oil production (weight: 8.98 per cent) declined by 2.4 per cent in February, 2018 over February, 2017. Its cumulative index declined by 0.8 per cent during April to February.
Coal production (weight: 10.33 per cent) increased by 1.4 per cent in February, and 1.6 per cent during the first ten months.
The Natural Gas production (weight: 6.88 per cent) declined by 1.5 per cent in February, 2018 over February, 2017. Its cumulative index increased by 3.1 per cent during April to February.
Petroleum Refinery production (weight: 28.04 per cent) increased by 7.8 per cent in February, and by 4.9 per cent in ten months.
Fertilizers production (weight: 2.63 per cent) increased by 5.3 per cent in February, 2018 over February, 2017. Its cumulative index declined by 0.2 per cent during April to February.
Steel production (weight: 17.92 per cent) increased by 5.0 per cent in February, 2018 over February, 2017. It was up by 5.9 per cent during April to February.
Cement production (weight: 5.37 per cent) increased by 22.9 per cent in February, and 5.7 per cent during April to February.
Electricity generation (weight: 19.85 per cent) increased by 4.0 per cent in February and 5.2 per cent in the year so far.
