Core sector reports marginal growth

Production in five industries shrinks

April 01, 2015 12:15 am | Updated 12:15 am IST - NEW DELHI:

Reflecting stagnation in the infrastructure space, the eight core sectors showed a marginal growth of 1.4 per cent in February.

There has been a continuous decline in this growth rate since December. Contraction in the output of five of the eight industries — steel, fertilizers and refinery products — dragged down the growth in February, according to official data released on Tuesday.

The growth in January was 1.8 per cent, and in February, 2014, it was 6.1 per cent.

The core infrastructure industries of coal, crude oil, oil refining, natural gas, steel, cement, electricity and fertilisers account for 37.9 per cent of the industrial output.

“Five of the eight sectors have shown negative growth rates, which is worrisome as four of them also had low or negative numbers last year. The oil and gas sector has been downbeat in particular...These numbers are reflective of stagnation in the infra space…Quite clearly there has been limited traction here,” said Care Ratings Chief Economist Madan Sabnavis in a report.

Coal, cement and electricity output up

Natural gas, steel and crude production shrunk 8.1 per cent, 4.4 per cent and 1.9 per cent, respectively. Only coal, cement and electricity increased by 11.6 per cent, 2.7 per cent and 5.2 per cent, respectively, during the month.

On a cumulative basis, growth during April-February 2014-15 was 3.8 per cent against 4.2 per cent in the same 11-month period in the previous financial year.

Of the eight industries, production of natural gas fell the most during the 11-month period — by 5.5 per cent — followed by crude oil, the output of which contracted 1.1 per cent.

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