India's core sector growth slows to 3-month low of 2.7%

New Delhi: After recording impressive performance in June, growth in eight core industries slowed down to 2.7 per cent in July due to decline in production of crude oil, natural gas, refinery products, fertilisers and steel.

Growth in the infrastructure sector, which has a combined weight of about 38 per cent in the Index of Industrial Production (IIP), stood at 5.3 per cent in July 2013.

Crude oil, natural gas, refinery products, fertilisers and steel recorded a negative growth of 1 per cent, 9 per cent, 5.5 per cent, 4.2 per cent and 3.4 per cent, respectively in July, according to the data of the Commerce and Industry Ministry.

However, coal, cement and electricity production grew by 6.2 per cent, 16.5 per cent and 11.2 per cent, respectively during the month under review.

During April-July, growth in the eight core industries grew by 4.1 per cent from 4.1 per cent in the year-ago period.

More from Economy

Inflation likely to be a big focus area for budget 2024, say sources Explained: Will the Bank of Japan break tradition and raise interest rates?

Led by healthy growth in cement and electricity, the eight core industries grew to a nine- month high of 7.3 per cent in June.

The low growth in July will have a bearing on the index of industrial production (IIP) which will be announced later this month.

Showing signs of sluggishness in the economy, growth rate of industrial production slowed to 3.4 per cent in June, as against 5 per cent in May, mainly due to lower output of consumer goods.

PTI