India’s core sector output increases by 4% in December

India's core sector output rose 4 per cent year-on-year in December, driven by coal and steel production activity, according to government data released Friday.

In November, infrastructure output, which accounts for 40% of the country’s industrial production, grew by a revised 4.4 per cent.

The Index of eight Core Industries is the measure of combined and individual performance of production of eight core industries: Coal, Crude Oil, Natural Gas, Refinery Products, Fertilizers, Steel, Cement and Electricity.


Cement production surged 4% in December, up from 3.8% from a year ago, while steel output grew 5.1%, lower than 8.3% in December 2023.

Coal production rose by just 5.3%, down from 10.8% in December 2023, and refinery product output grew 2.8%, compared to a 4.1% rise in the same month of 2023.

Electricity generation increased by 5.1%, improving from a 1.2% growth in December 2023. Fertilizer production rose by 1.7%, falling from 5.9% in the year ago period.

Meanwhile, crude oil production recovered by 0.6% from a decline of 2.1% in the previous month. Natural gas output continued to register a downward trajectory, falling by 1.8% as against 1.9% contraction in November 2023. In December 2023, crude oil production registered a growth of 6.7%.

For the April to December, 2024-25 is 4.2 per cent (provisional), a slowdown compared to the 8.3% growth seen in the same period last year.

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).