Healthy production of electricity & Refinery products push core industries output

New Delhi: Healthy production of electricity and refinery products pushed the output pace of India’s eight major industries to an 11-month high of 5.5 percent in February from a revised rise of 1.4 percent reported for January 2020.

However, this uptrend is expected to be fleeting due to the lockdown in March 2020 affecting production across sectors.

This was also the fourth consecutive month of a rise for the Index of Eight Core Industries after three months of contraction.

Similarly, the Index showed that last month’s expansion was higher on a year-on-year basis from 2.2 per cent growth rate reported for February 2019.

The eight core industries include coal, crude oil, natural gas, refinery products, fertilisers, steel, cement and electricity.

As per the ECI, barring crude oil, natural gas, and steel, all other sectors expanded in February.

The ECI comprises over 40 per cent of the weight of items included in the Index of Industrial Production (IIP).

On a sector-specific basis, the refinery output, which has the highest weightage of 28.03, rose by 7.4 per cent in February compared to the same month of the previous financial year.

Electricity generation, which has the second highest weightage of 19.85, increased by 11 per cent. (IANS)

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