Press Trust of India
New Delhi, Feb 1: Growth of eight core sectors slowed down to 0.9 per cent in December 2015 from 3.2 per cent in the same month of previous year as production of crude oil, natural gas and steel sectors declined. The eight core or infrastructure industries are coal, crude oil, natural gas, refinery products, fertilisers, steel, cement and electricity. The December production numbers are, however, better than those in November which witnessed the worst performance in seven months with the output of eight sectors contracting by 1.3 per cent.
The eight core sectors have nearly 38 per cent weight in the Index of Industrial Production (IIP) which gauges overall industrial output growth. The cumulative growth of core sectors in April-December period of 2015-16 came in at 1.9 per cent, lower than 5.7 per cent in the first nine months of the last financial year. According to the data released by the Ministry of Commerce and Industry Monday, crude oil, natural gas and steel recorded negative growth in December 2015.
Production of crude oil declined by 4.1 per cent, natural gas by 6.1 per cent and steel by 4.4 per cent in the month under review. In the year ago period, the output of crude oil had declined by 1.4 per cent, natural gas by 2.9 per cent and steel had flat performance. Production growth in coal, refinery products, cement and electricity generation too slowed down to 6.1 per cent, 2.1 per cent, 3.2 per cent and 2.7 per cent, respectively, from 7.5 per cent, 6.1 per cent, 3.8 per cent and 4.8 per cent in December 2014. However, fertilizer production grew by 13.1 per cent in December from (-) 1.6 per cent in the same month previous year.
