Growth in 8 core sector industries declines by 0.6% in October

NEW DELHI: Dashing hopes of recovery, the output of eight core sector industries contracted by 0.6 per cent in October due to poor showing by coal, oil and gas sectors.

The decline in output of eight core sector industries -- coal, crude oil, natural gas, refinery products, fertilisers, steel, cement, electricity -- follows a robust 8 per cent growth in September.

According to the data released by the government today, the output of eight infrastructure industries in April-October was a mere 2.6 per cent against 6.8 per cent in the same period of the last fiscal.

The eight core industries have a combined weight of about 38 per cent in the Index for Industrial Production ( IIP).

The October IIP numbers will be released in the second week of December.

Commenting on the data, Crisil's Chief Economist D K Joshi said the performance of the core sector is likely to remain subdued in the coming months as well.

Natural gas output contracted by 13.6 per cent in October year-on-year.

Coal production declined by 3.9 per cent. Crude oil output was also poor with 0.8 per cent fall in the month under review.

Petroleum refinery production declined by 4.8 per cent. Among those which put up good performance, fertiliser output registered a growth of 4.1 per cent and steel production grew at 3.5 per cent.

Cement and power generation sectors posted marginal growth of over 1 per cent each in the month under review.