Industrial production of core sector gathers momentum, registers 6.7 per cent in Jan

New Delhi, Mar 1 (KNN) The output of the core sector in the country comprising of eight sectors including coal, crude oil, natural gas, refinery products,  fertilisers, steel, cement and electricity registered a growth of 6.7 per cent this January, data released by commerce and industries ministry informed.

According to the data the core sector industrial production grew at a faster pace of 6.7 per cent in January compared with 3.4 per cent growth in the year-ago period.

The growth was driven by robust performance of cement, steel and coal sectors.

The growth in January was a result of an impressive 20.7 per cent figure of cement output compared with 13.3 per cent contraction in the year-ago period. Cement has a weight of 5.37 per cent in index of industrial production (IIP).

Also petroleum refinery production, which has a weight of 28.04 per cent in IIP, was up 11 per cent in January against a flat output in the year-ago month.

The data further informed electricity generation (weight: 19.85 per cent), which grew at an accelerated growth of 8.2 per cent in January 2018 against 5.2 per cent in the same month in 2017.

The coal sector output improved by 3 per cent and steel production (weight: 17.92 per cent) by 3.7 per cent in January 2018.

While the above mentioned sector registered growth, crude oil production (weight: 8.98 per cent) dropped by 3.2 per cent along with fertilisers by 1.6 per cent and natural gas by one per cent in the month under review.

The growth in key sectors is likely to have implications for the IIP as the eight core sectors account for over 41 per cent of the total factory output. (With PIB inputs) (KNN/DA)