Eight core industries having combined weightage of 37.90 per cent in the Index of Industrial Production (IIP) grew at 5.8 per cent in August this year, compared to 4.7 per cent during the corresponding month of last year, mainly on the back of good performance by the coal, cement and electricity generation sectors. The ministry of commerce and industry reported that the index of eight core industries with base 2004-05 stood at 165.1 in the month under review against 163.9 in previous month and 156 in the same month last year. Cumulatively, in the first five months of 2014-15, the eight sectors grew 4.4 per cent, marginally faster than the 4.2 per cent in the same period of the previous year.
Electricity generation, which has 10.32 per cent weightage in the IIP, grew 12.6 per cent in August 2014 as compared to 7.1 per cent in the same month of the previous year. Cement production grew 10.3 per cent and steel production was up 9.1 per cent. Coal production zoomed 13.4 per cent from 6.1 per cent in the corresponding month of last year. Its cumulative index during April to August, 2014-15 increased by 7.2 per cent over corresponding period of previous year.
On the other hand, the negative-growth sectors included crude oil output, which shrank 4.9 per cent. The cumulative index of Crude Oil during April to August, 2014-15 declined by 1.2 per cent over the corresponding period of previous year. Natural gas production declined by 8.3 per cent and on cumulative basis during April to August, 2014-15 declined by 5.8 per cent over the corresponding period of previous year. Refinery products output too was down 4.3 per cent and fertilizer production fell by 4.3 per cent in the reporting month.
The robust performance by the core sector, which comprises coal, crude oil, oil refining, natural gas, steel, cement, electricity and fertilisers is likely to get reflected in the IIP numbers due October 12.