rate of increase in production of eight key areas Output of crude oil, natural gas, refinery products and cement contracted in October to a 20-month low of 0.1 per cent, according to official data released on Wednesday.
These sectors had grown by 8.7 per cent in October last year. In September this year, the output growth of core sectors was 7.8 per cent.
The last time it did was in February 2021, when eight infrastructure sectors – coal, crude oil, natural gas, refinery products, fertilisers, steel, cement and electricity – registered a negative growth of 3.3 per cent.
The growth rate during April-October this fiscal stood at 8.2 per cent, as against 15.6 per cent a year ago.
Crude oil, natural gas, refinery products and cement production registered negative growth rates in October.
However, fertilizer production increased by 5.4 per cent during the month under review.
Growth rates in the production of coal, steel and electricity slowed to 3.6 per cent, 4 per cent and 0.4 per cent, respectively.
These numbers have an impact on IIP (Index of Industrial Production) data.
The IIP data for October is expected to be released by the government in the second week of December.
The contribution of eight core industries in IIP is 40.27 per cent.
