Core sector industrial production declines by 0.5% in August
30 Sep 2019
Core sector industrial production in the country declined by 0.5 per cent in August 2019, against a 2.1 per cent growth in July and a 6.6 per cent growth in August last year.
Expansion of key sectors were slackened by a decline in the production of crude oil, natural gas, coal, cement and electricity.
Output in the eight core sector industries comprising coal, crude oil, natural gas, refinery products, fertiliser, steel, cement and electricity, which carry nearly 40.27 per cent of the weight of items included in the Index of Industrial Production (IIP), grew 2.4 per cent in the first five months of the current fiscal (April-August 2019-20).
Coal production, which has a weight of 10.33 per cent in the index of industrial production (IIP), declined by 8.6 per cent in August 2019 while its cumulative production declined by 0.2 per cent during April-August 2019-20.
Production of crude oil (weight of 8.98 per cent in IIP) declined by 5.4 per cent in August 2019 while its cumulative production declined by 6.1 per cent during April-August 2019-20.
Production of natural gas (weight of 6.88 per cent in IIP) declined by 3.9 per cent in August 2019 while its cumulative production declined by 1.5 per cent during April-August 2019-20.
Petroleum refinery production (weight of 28.04 per cent in IIP) increased by 2.6 per cent in August 2019 while cumulative refinery output declined by 1.1 per cent during April-August 2019-20.
Fertilizers production (weight of 2.63 per cent in IIP) increased by 2.9 per cent in August 2019 while cumulative fertiliser production increased by 0.3 per cent during April-August 2019-20.
Steel production (weight of 17.92 per cent in IIP) increased by 5.0 per cent in August 2019 while cumulative steel production increased by 9.7 per cent during April-August 2019-20.
Cement production (weight of 5.37 per cent in IIP) declined by 4.9 per cent in August 2019 while its cumulative production increased by 1.3 per cent during April-August 2019-20.
Electricity generation (weight of 19.85 per cent in IIP) declined by 2.9 per cent in August 2019 while cumulative generation of electricity increased by 4.6 per cent during April-August 2019-20.