Core industries output rises to 5.6 pc in Dec

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SME Times News Bureau | 01 Feb, 2017
Country's select industrial output rose to 5.6 percent in December 2016 on the back of higher production of steel, refinery products and electricity, official data showed on Tuesday.

The gauge for select factory output -- Index of Eight Core Industries (ECI) -- had increased by 4.9 percent in November and risen by 2.9 percent during the corresponding month of 2015.

The data which represents the output of major industrial sectors was released by the Ministry of Commerce and Industry.

The ECI comprises of nearly 38 percent weightage of the items included in the Index of Industrial Production (IIP).

The index includes sectors like coal, crude oil, natural gas, refinery products, fertilisers, steel (alloy and non-alloy), cement and electricity.

Under the ECI, steel, refinery products and electricity reported healthy output, whereas production of cement, fertilisers, crude oil and natural gas declined.

Electricity generation, which has the highest weightage of 10.32 percent in the IIP, edged up by 6.00 percent in December 2016 as compared with the corresponding month of 2015.

Steel production, the second most important component as per weightage of 6.68 percent, surged the maximum among all the sub-indices. It zoomed by 14.9 percent during the month under review.

Distilling of refinery products, the third most important component as per weightage, was higher by 6.4 percent in December last year.

However, extraction of crude oil, which has a 5.22 percent weightage in IIP, decreased by 0.8 percent during last month.

Conversely, coal mining, with a 4.38 percent weightage, increased by 4.4 percent last month.

Cement production, which has the weightage of 2.41 percent, declined by 8.7 percent in December 2016.

On the other hand, the sub-index for natural gas output, with a weightage of 1.71 percent, edged lower by 0.01 percent during the month under consideration.

Fertiliser manufacturing, which has the least weightage of only 1.25 percent, fell by 4.7 percent in December 2016.