The commerce ministry reported on Tuesday that India’s eight core sectors gained 8.4% in April, up from a revised 4.9 percent in March.
“The Office of Economic Adviser, Department for Promotion of Industry and Internal Trade (DPIIT) has released the Index of Eight Core Industries (ICI) for the Month of April 2022. ICI measures combined and individual performance of production in selected eight core industries viz. Coal, Crude Oil, Natural Gas, Refinery Products, Fertilizers, Steel, Cement, and Electricity. The Eight Core Industries comprise 40.27 percent of the weight of items included in the Index of Industrial Production (IIP),” read the statement.
In April, output improved in six of the eight core sectors. Coal, power, refinery products, fertilizers, cement, and natural gas were among these sectors.
In April, coal production rose 28.8% year over year, while electricity generation increased by 10.7%.
In April, refinery product output increased by 9.2 percent, while fertilizer production grew by 8.7 percent. Cement production marked an uptick of 8%, while natural gas production increased by 6.4 percent.
Production of steel plummeted 0.7 percent in April and crude oil fell 0.9 percent.
The data provided by the government is provisional and subject to revisions. Core industries data for May will be available in the public domain on June 30.
The final growth rate of the index of eight core sectors for January 2022 was upgraded to 4 percent from its provisional figure of 3.7 percent.
The growth rate of the eight sectors during fiscal 2021 was 10.4 percent year-on-year.