Refinery products, crude slow February core sector growth

New Delhi: Contraction in refinery products and crude oil extraction decelerated the output pace of India’s eight major industries in February to 2.1 per cent year-on-year, official data showed on Monday. According to the data from the Ministry of Commerce and Industry, the Index of Eight Core Industries (ECI) had risen by 5.4 per cent during the same period last year.

However, on a sequential basis, the index rose marginally to 2.1 per cent in February from 1.5 per cent in January 2019. The core sector index carries 40.27 per cent weight of the items included in the Index of Industrial Production (IIP).

“The combined Index of Eight Core Industries stood at 125.8 in February 2019, which was 2.1 per cent higher as compared to the index of February 2018. Its cumulative growth during April to February, 2018-19 was 4.3 per cent,” the Ministry said in a statement.

On sector-specific basis, the output of refinery products, which has the highest weightage of 28.03, declined (-)0.8 per cent in February 2019 compared to the corresponding month of the last fiscal. Electricity generation, which has the second highest weightage of 19.85, inched higher by 0.7 per cent.

However, steel production, the third most important component with a weightage of 17.91, was up by 4.9 per cent during the month under review, whereas coal mining, with a 10.33 weightage, inched-up 7.3 per cent. On the other hand, extraction of crude oil, which has a weightage of 8.98, declined by (-)6.1 per cent during the month under consideration. (ians)

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