The growth rate of eight core sectors in India increased by 5.2 per cent in March on an annual basis, the Ministry of Commerce & Industry said on Tuesday.
The index had grown by 7.1 per cent in February 2024 and 4.1 per cent in January 2024. Meanwhile, it stood 4.2 per cent in March 2023.
"The production of Cement, Coal, Electricity, Natural Gas, Steel and Crude Oil recorded positive growth in March 2024" the government said.
The coal sector output decreased by 8.7 per cent as against 11.7 per cent in the year-ago period. Likewise, the crude oil sector witnessed a growth of 2 per cent against a dip of 2.7 per cent YoY. In February 2024, coal sector and crude oil output was recorded at 11.6 and 7.9 per cent respectively.
While Natural Gas increased by 6.3 per cent in March 2024 from 2.7 in March 2023, Refinery Products saw a dip from 1.5 per cent last year to 0.3 per cent in the previous month.
Even fertilizers sector contracted by 1.3 per cent in the last month as against a growth of 9.7 per cent in the year-ago period.
Cement and electricity sectors increased by 10.6 per cent and 8 per cent from a dip of 0.2 and 1.6 per cent YoY respectively.
The index of Eight Core Industries (ICI) measures the combined and individual performance of production of eight core industries namely cement, coal, crude oil, electricity, fertilizers, natural gas, refinery products and steel. These industries comprise 40.27 percent of the weight of items included in the Index ..
Source Name : Economic Times