Core sector growth slows to 1.7% in November

The output of eight core sector industries slowed to 1.7 per cent in November due to poor showing by natural gas, fertiliser and petroleum refinery sectors.

The eight core sector industries -coal, crude oil, natural gas, refinery products, fertilisers, steel, cement, electricity-grew by 5.8 per cent in November 2012.

According to the data released by the government, the output of eight infrastructure industries in April-November grew by a mere 2.5 per cent against 6.7 per cent in the same period of the last fiscal.

The eight core industries have a combined weight of about 38 per cent in the Index for Industrial Production (IIP).

The November IIP numbers would be released in the second week of January.

Natural gas output fell 11.3 per cent in November year-on-year. Petroleum refinery production shrank by 5 per cent. Fertiliser output growth slowed down to 0.6 per cent in the month under review,. Steel production also decelerated by 3.9 per cent.

Among those which put up a good performance, cement which registered a growth of 4.2 per cent and electricity generation grew at 5.9 per cent. Coal output grew by 2.3 per cent in November as against (-) 2.9 per cent in the same month last year.