Eight Core Sectors Grow 11.6% In August
Year-on-year growth in eight core sectors picked up in August, while activity remained flat sequentially.
Eight core industries grew 11.6% in August over a year ago, showed government data released on Thursday. Growth in these sectors picked up compared to 9.9% year-on-year in July.
Between July and August, activity moderated sequentially by 0.9%.
"The pickup in the year-on-year core sector growth to 11.6% in August 2021 from 9.9% in the previous month, benefitted from the lull in rains, which supported the growth in coal, cement and electricity, as well as higher mobility that propped up the growth in petroleum refinery products," Aditi Nayar, chief economist at ICRA Ltd., said.
How The Eight Core Sectors Fared
Electricity output rose 15.3% year-on-year. It rose 1.6% month-on-month.
Cement output was up 36.3% year-on-year, but down 3.6% over a month ago.
Steel output rose 5.1% over a year ago. It was about 2% higher compared to the preceding month.
Fertiliser output dropped 3.1% compared to last year. It was 2.6% lower than the preceding month.
Refinery products output was up 9.1% year-on-year, but 5.5% lower than in July.
Natural gas output was up 20.6% year-on-year and 1% higher than a month ago.
Crude oil output was down 2.6% year-on-year. It was 1.2% below a month ago.
Coal output was up 20.6% over a year ago. It was also marginally lower than in July.