NEW DELHI: India’s core infrastructure sectors contracted 6.5 per cent in March 2020 on account of the nationwide lockdown imposed to contain the spread of coronavirus. The eight core industries, which comprise 40.27 per cent of the weight of items included in the Index of Industrial Production (IIP), had seen improvement in February.
Data released by the government on Thursday revealed that crude oil sector contracted 5.5 per cent, natural gas by 15.2 per cent, refinery products by 0.5 per cent, fertilisers by 11.9 per cent, steel by 13 per cent, cement by 24.7 per cent and electricity by 7.2 per cent during the month. Coal was the only sector that grew, by 4 per cent.
During April-March period of FY20, core industries recorded 0.6 per cent growth against 4.4 per cent in FY19.This was on the expected lines on as most of the economists and rating agencies had sharply cut their growth projections for India, projecting a contraction of economy for the first time in the past three decades.
Rating agency CRISIL on Thursday said that corporate India will be reporting its worst performance in a decade during the ongoing fiscal year with a double-digit revenue decline and an even higher dent in profitability, as India is likely to lose 4 per cent of its GDP to Covid-19.
It added that the EBITDA of India Inc could dip between 15-18 per cent for a 1.8 per cent of GDP growth, and 25-30 per cent for flat GDP growth. The predictions were based on trends for over 800 listed, non-oil and non-BFSI companies.
