Growth in eight core sectors slows down to 2.1% in July from 7.3% last year

Growth in eight core sectors of India slipped to 2.1 per cent during July, in comparison to 7.3 per cent during the corresponding month last year, government data released on Monday showed. The cumulative growth across these eight industries during the April to July period in the current fiscal stood at 3 per cent, compared to 5.9 per cent in the year-ago period.

The data was released after GDP growth rate of India fell to a six-year low of 5 per cent during the first quarter of the ongoing fiscal. Dwindling growth in key industries further emphasises on the economic slowdown reflected in the dismal GDP figures.

"The Eight Core Industries comprise 40.27 per cent of the weight of items included in the Index of Industrial Production (IIP). The combined Index of Eight Core Industries stood at 131.9 in July, 2019, which was 2.1 per cent higher as compared to the index of July, 2018," the Ministry of Commerce and Industry said in a statement on Monday.

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Growth in eight core sectors saw marginal growth during July 2019 in comparison to the the previous month. During June 2019, the figure stood at 0.7 per cent.

Crude oil was the worst hit among the eight sectors, reporting a decline of 4.4 per cent during the month of July. Coal production presented the second-worst performance with a decline of 1.4 per cent in its growth.

Natural gas and refinery products also showed signs of slowdown as their growth rates declined by 0.5 per cent and 0.9 per cent respectively.

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However, cement, steel and electricity posted decent growth during July, growing at a rate of 7.9 per cent, 6.6 per cent and 4.2 per cent. Fertiliser production managed to grow at 1.5 per cent during the month.

GDP growth estimates for the April-June quarter showed a stark decline as Indian economy grew by a mere 5 per cent during the period. Substantial fall in manufacturing and consumption dragged the GDP to its lowest in 25 quarters.