NEW DELHI: The country’s eight core sectors, coal, crude oil, steel, cement, electricity, fertilisers, refinery products, and natural gas experienced a growth rate of 8% in July, as reported by the Ministry of Commerce and Industry on August 31.
Growth for the month of July is slightly lower than that of 8.3% in June. In July 2022, core sector growth stood at 4.8%.
From April to July period, core sector output recorded a growth of 6.4%, a decline from the 11.5% growth in the first four months of 2022-23. The strong performance in the month of July was primarily driven by three sectors -- coal, natural gas, and steel. Coal production increased by 14.9% year-on-year, while natural gas production increased at a rate of 8.9%, more than double that of June.
Steel production also experienced double-digit growth, reaching 13.5%, albeit lower than June’s 20.8% increase. “The capital expenditure (capex) by the union and states (16 states representing more than 69% of all states capex) which increased by a strong 13.4% year-on-year to Rs 67,963 crore in July 2023 provided succour to the steel and cement sectors,” said Sunil Kumar Sinha, senior director and principal economist, and Paras Jasrai, senior analyst at India Ratings and Research.
These three sectors collectively account for over 35% of the combined index of the eight core industries.
However, the remaining five sectors continued to be a drag on overall output growth, except for crude oil and electricity, which showed signs of improvement. The eight core industries comprise over 40% of the Index of Industrial Production (IIP). In June, India’s industrial output grew by 3.7%, the lowest in three months. Data for August will be released on September 29.
