Eight Core Industries Saw Output Fall 3.7% Month-On-Month In May

Eight core infrastructure industries saw output fall 3.7% over the previous month in May, shows data released by the government on Wednesday. In April, output had dropped 12.4% compared to March, suggesting that the pace of decline in economic activity seen in April was not mirrored in May.

Compared to a year ago, when a nationwide lockdown was in place, output across these industries was higher by 16.8%, the data showed.

Coal, crude oil, natural gas, refinery products, fertilisers, steel, cement and electricity count among the core sectors, which constitute 40% of the Index of Industrial Production.

Sunil Kumar Sinha, principal economist at India Ratings & Research Ltd., said the best way to assess the core sector data is to compare to index levels between now and February 2020 before the Covid crisis hit.

• Coal output rose 3% month-on-month in May compared with a decline of 46% in April.

• Crude oil output declined 2% compared with a drop of 4.7% in April.

• Natural gas output rose 2.9% versus a 1% drop in April.

• Refinery products saw a drop of 4.6% compared with an 8.2% fall in April.

• Fertiliser production rose 16% compared with a 3.3% drop the previous month.

• Steel output was lower by 0.4% over a month ago compared with a 9.1% drop a month ago.

• Cement output dropped 17.6% month-on-month versus a 10.7% decline in April.

• Electricity output dropped 7% in May over a month ago. In April, it had declined 3.3% compared with a month ago.