India’s core sectors witnessed a contraction of 38.1 per cent in April due to the fallout of Covid-19 Pandemic and subsequent lockdown announced by the government to contain its spread. The eight key sectors contribute about 40 per cent to the Index of Industrial Production (IIP) and that means IIP in April will also be very low.
The output of core sectors had contracted to 6.5 in the month of March. Cement Industry had suffered the worst impact of Lockdown, its output growth declined by a massive 86 per cent in April from 25.1 per cent in March. Steel Industry Output went down by 83.9 per cent from the previous month of 24.1 per cent. Coal Industry Output went down by 15.5 per cent from its previous year’s 4 per cent decline. Crude Oil output down by 6.4 per cent from previous year’s 5.5 per cent.
The other core industries whose outputs have suffered are natural gas, refinery products, fertilizers and electricity which suffered 19.9 per cent, 0.5 per cent, 4.5 per cent and 22.8 per cent of contraction in April respectively. These contraction percentages of core sectors output are comparatively more than the march contraction Percentages.