India's eight core sectors grow by 5.1% in May

The growth of eight core sectors in India improved to 5.1 per cent in May, helped by rise in output in steel and electricity, official data showed on Monday.

"The eight core sector industries - coal, crude oil, natural gas, refinery products, fertiliser, steel, cement and electricity - expanded by 4.1 per cent in May last year," according to data released by the Ministry of Commerce and Industry.

During April-May, the cumulative growth of these industries, which accounts for almost 41 per cent of the weight of items included in the Index of Industrial Production (IIP), was 5.7 per cent compared to 4.4 per cent during the same period last year.

Meanwhile, the growth rate for the index of eight core industries (ICI) for April 2019 has been revised upward to 6.3 per cent from 2.6 per cent due to upward revisions in output of coal, crude oil, steel, cement and electricity, the data showed.

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Sector wise, steel industry registered a double digit growth of 19.9 per cent in the month of May 2019 as compared to last year. Electricity sector posted a year-on-year growth of 7.2 per cent during last month, which was the highest in last six months, i.e. since November 2018.

Cement and Coal sectors reported moderate growth of 2.8 per cent and 1.8 per cent, respectively. The production of natural gas remained unchanged in the month of May 2019.

However, the production of crude oil, refinery products and fertilizers sectors declined by (-) 6.9 per cent, (-) 1.5 per cent and (-) 1.0 per cent respectively in the month of May 2019 over May 2018.

Edited by Chitranjan Kumar

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