Core sectors' output up 9.4% in July

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SME Times News Bureau | 31 Aug, 2021
Easing Covid restrictions, along with pent-up demand, accelerated the output of India's eight major industries in July on a year-on-year basis.

The Index of Eight Core Industries (ICI) readings for the last month showed an expansion of 9.4 per cent from a decline of 7.6 per cent in output during the same month of the previous year.

On a sequential basis, the core industrial growth during June stood at 9.3 per cent.

The ICI index comprises 40.27 per cent of the weight of items included in the Index of Industrial Production (IIP), and these industries comprise coal, crude oil, natural gas, refinery products, fertilisers, steel, cement and electricity.

"The combined Index of Eight Core Industries stood at 134 in July 2021, which increased by 9.4 per cent (provisional) as compared to the Index of July 2020," the Ministry of Commerce & Industry said in a statement.

"The production of coal, natural gas, refinery products, fertilisers, steel, cement, and electricity industries increased in July 2021 over the corresponding period of last year."

As per the statement, final growth rate of the ICI for April 2021 has been revised to 62.6 per cent from its provisional level of 56.1 per cent.

"The growth rate of ICI during April-July 2021-22 was 21.2 per cent (P) as compared to the corresponding period of last FY."

On a sector-specific basis, the output of coal, which has a weightage of 10.33 per cent in the index, showed a growth of 18.7 per cent in July 2021 over the same month of the previous year.

Similarly, the output of refinery products, which has the highest weightage of 28.04 per cent, rose by 6.7 per cent, compared to the corresponding month of the last fiscal.

Electricity generation, which has the second highest weightage of 19.85 per cent, rose by 9 per cent, whereas steel production was up 9.3 per cent last month.

However, the extraction of crude oil, which has an weightage of 8.98 per cent, declined by (-)3.2 per cent during the month under consideration, though the sub-index for natural gas output, with a weightage of 6.88 per cent, rose by 18.9 per cent.

Cement production, which has a weightage of 5.37 per cent, rose by 21.8 per cent in the month under review.

Fertiliser manufacturing, which has the least weightage -- only 2.63 per cent -- grew by 0.5 per cent.