India’s core sectors grow 2% in September

India’s eight core sectors’ output rose 2 per cent in September as compared to decline of 1.8% in August, showed government data on Wednesday. The growth comes after the previous month’s output shrank 1.8% from a year earlier, the first contraction in 42 months.

“The production of Cement, Refinery Products, Coal, Fertilizers and Steel recorded positive growth in September 2024,” said the Ministry of Commerce and Industry in the statement.

The coal sector increased by 2.6 per cent in September, 2024 over September, 2023. Likewise, the crude oil sector witnessed a fall of 3.9 per cent when compared to same month of last year.

Fertilizer production, which holds 2.63 per cent weightage in the index, increased by 1.9 per cent in September 2024 over same month last year. Its cumulative index increased by 1.7 per cent during April to September, 2024-25 over corresponding period of the previous year.

Steel output increased by 1.5 per cent in September 2024. For cement sector, production went up by 7.1 per cent.

The growth of core sectors — coal, crude oil, natural gas, refinery products, fertiliser, steel, cement and electricity — was 4.2 per cent during April-September this fiscal. It was 8.2 per cent in the same period last fiscal. The ICI measures the combined and individual performance of production of eight core industries viz. Cement, Coal, Crude Oil, Electricity, Fertilizers, Natural Gas, Refinery Products and Steel. The Eight Core Industries comprise 40.27 percent of the weight of items included in the Index of Industrial Production (IIP).

(more to come)