The growth rate of eight core sectors in India increased by 6.7% in February on an annual basis, the Ministry of Commerce & Industry said on Thursday.
The index had grown by 4.1% in January 2024 and 4.9% in December 2023. Meanwhile, in February 2023 the growth stood at 7.4%.
“The production of Coal, Natural Gas, Cement, Steel, Crude Oil, Electricity and Refinery Products recorded positive growth in February 2024” the government said.
The coal sector increased by 11.6% as against 9% in the year-ago period. Likewise, the crude oil sector witnessed a growth of 7.9% against a dip of 4.9% YoY.
While Natural Gas increased by 11.3% in February 2024 from 3.1 in February 2023, Refinery Products saw a dip from 3.3% last year to 2.6% in the previous month.
Even fertilizers sector saw a slowed growth of -9.5% in the last month as against 22.2% in the year-ago period.
Steel and electricity sectors growth decreased to 8.4% and 6.3% from 12.4 and 8.2% YoY respectively. However, the cement grew by 10.2% in February 2024 from 7.4% in February 2023.
The index of Eight Core Industries (ICI) measures the combined and individual performance of production of eight core industries namely cement, coal, crude oil, electricity, fertilizers, natural gas, refinery products and steel. These industries comprise 40.27% of the weight of items included in the Index of Industrial Production (IIP).
