Core sector output rises 6.4% in March

Tribune News Service

New Delhi, May 2

The growth of the eight core sectors rose to a 16-month high of 6.4% in March due to pickup in electricity, cement and refinery products.

The sectors — coal, crude oil, natural gas, refinery products, fertilisers, steel, cement and electricity — comprising nearly 38% of India’s total industrial production, had shrunk to (-)0.7% in March last year.

It is the highest monthly growth since November 2014, when these sectors had expanded by 6.7%.

During the fiscal 2015-16 as a whole, the eight core sectors grew by 2.7%, while it had expanded by 4.5% in 2014-15.

Aditi Nayar, senior economist, ICRA, said the pickup in the momentum of core sector growth to a 16-month high in March 2016 was a positive surprise. Core sector growth was powered by the double-digit expansion in electricity, cement, refinery products and fertilisers, even as growth of coal output waned, and crude oil and natural gas slipped back into contraction.