Core Sector Growth Improves To 4.7% In March

The growth of eight core sectors improved marginally to 4.7 percent in March 2019 against 4.5 percent in the same month last year.

For the full 2018-19 fiscal, the expansion rate of eight infrastructure sectors— coal, crude oil, natural gas, refinery products, fertilisers, steel, cement and electricity— flat at 4.3 percent, official data showed.

Coal generation growth was flat at 9.1 percent in March 2019. Natural gas, refinery products, fertiliser, steel and cement sectors recorded positive growth rates.

Crude oil production, however, contracted by 6.2 percent in March while electricity generation dropped 1.4 percent during in the same period.

A fall in production of crude oil and refinery products had dragged the growth of the eight core sectors to 2.1 percent in February. The infrastructure sector growth will also have an impact on the Index of Industrial Production as these segments account for about 41 percent of the total factory output.