India's core industries' output grows 5% in September

The Dollar Business Bureau

India's core industries' output rose by 5% in September as against the same month of last fiscal, riding high on an increased production of steel, cement and refinery products. The cumulative growth during April to September grew 4.6%.

The Index of Eight Core Industries (ECI) had increased by 3.2% in August compared to 3.7% in the corresponding month of 2015.

The Ministry of Commerce and Industry on Monday released the official data, representing production data of the country’s major infrastructure sectors.

The ECI – that includes coal, crude oil, natural gas, refinery products, fertilisers, steel (alloy and non-alloy), cement and electricity – consists of about 38% weightage in the Index of Industrial Production (IIP).

Electricity generation has the highest weightage of 10.32% in the IIP. Its output went up 2.2% in September as against the corresponding month of 2015.

Steel production has the second-highest weightage of 6.68%. It skyrocketed 16.3% in the September month. The distilling of refinery products, the third-most key component as per weightage, recorded an impressive 9.3% growth in September, as against the corresponding month of last year.

Extraction of crude oil, with a 5.21% weightage in IIP, registered a 4.1% decreased in last month over September, 2015. Coal mining, which has a 4.38% weightage, fell 5.8 last month.

Cement production, with a weightage of 2.41% per cent, declined by 5.5% in September 2016.