Core Sector Grows 5.3 Per Cent In February, Up From 0.6 Per Cent In The Same Month Last Year

A robust performance of refinery products, fertiliser and cement segments helped eight infrastructure sectors grow 5.3 per cent in February, Zee News has reported. Coal, crude oil, natural gas, refinery products, fertilisers, steel, cement and electricity form what is known as the core sector.

In February 2017, the eight infrastructure sectors had seen a tepid growth of 0.6 per cent. The January growth rate for the core sector was 6.1 per cent.

Petroleum refinery production rose 7.8 per cent in the month under review, as compared to the negative 2.8 per cent growth in the same month last year.

The growth rates for fertiliser and cement production were 5.3 per cent and 22.9 per cent respectively in February.

Electricity generation spurted 4 per cent in February, showing an improvement over the 1.2 per cent growth clocked in the year-ago month.

Coal and steel production, which grew 6.6 per cent and 8.7 per cent respectively in February 2017, slowed to 1.4 per cent and 5 per cent respectively in February 2018.

The cumulative growth rate for the eight core sectors in the April-February period of the 2017-18 fiscal was 4.3 per cent, a figure lower than the 4.7 per cent growth recorded in the same period in the previous fiscal.

The core sector has a significant effect on the Index of Industrial Production (IIP) data as these eight segments comprise about 41 per cent of the total factory output.