Indicating yet another better tiding for the economy, the eight core sector industries grew 8.5 per cent in April this year, with refinery products and electricity registering double-digit growth.

The eight sectors — coal, crude oil, natural gas, refinery products, fertilisers, steel, cement and electricity — grew 6.4 per cent in March 2016 and had contracted by 0.2 per cent in April last year.

This is more than a two-year high and marks the fifth consecutive month of positive growth in the core sector industries.

“Its cumulative growth during April to March 2015-16 was 2.7 per cent,” said an official statement on Tuesday.

The eight core industries account for nearly 38 per cent of the weight of items included in the Index of Industrial Production (IIP) but whether it would translate to better industrial performance is difficult to ascertain, as was evident from the trend in March. The IIP grew at a stuttering 0.1 per cent in March, raising concerns over the state of the economy.

Among the eight core industries, petroleum refinery products performed the best, and grew at 17.9 per cent in April, followed by electricity production that rose 14.7 per cent. Meanwhile, production of fertiliser and cement eased from March but remained robust. The fertiliser sector grew 7.8 per cent, steel by 6.1 per cent and cement by 4.4 per cent in April.

But, the performance of three sectors, including natural gas, crude oil and coal contracted in April by 6.8 per cent, 2.3 per cent and 0.9 per cent, respectively.

“A number of core sector industries, such as petroleum refinery products and cement have shown excellent growth due to extremely low base. However, growth in electricity output remains the bright spot. Even growth in cement output is encouraging and appears to be benefiting from the revival of the road sector,” said Sunil Kumar Sinha, Principal Economist, India Ratings.

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