New Delhi Jan 31 (IANS) An unfavourable base effect for steel and refinery products pulled India s eight major industries output to a 5-month low in December.
On a sequential basis the "Index of Eight Core Industries" (ECI) for December grew by 4 per cent from a rise of 7.4 per cent reported for November 2017.
Similarly on a year-on-year (YoY) basis the ECI which represents the output of major sectors like coal steel cement and electricity showed a downtrend. It had risen by 5.6 per cent in the corresponding month of the previous fiscal.
"The combined Index of ECI stands at 129.1 in December 2017 which was 4 per cent higher as compared to the index of December 2016 " the Ministry of Commerce & Industry said.
"Its cumulative growth during April to December 2017-18 was 4 per cent."
The ECI index carries 40.27 per cent weightage of the Index of Industrial Production (IIP) which is the macro-gauge for India s factory output.
On a sector-specific basis refinery products which has the highest weightage of 28.03 per cent grew by 6.6 per cent in December 2017 as compared with the corresponding month of the last fiscal.
Electricity generation which has the second highest weightage of 19.85 picked-up by 3.3 per cent.
Steel production the third most important component with weightage of 17.92 rose by 2.6 per cent during the month under review whereas coal mining with a 10.33 weightage slipped by (-)0.1 per cent.
Extraction of crude oil which has an 8.98 weightage declined by (-)2.1 per cent during the month under consideration.
The sub-index for natural gas output with a weightage of 6.88 went up by 1 per cent.
Cement production which has a weightage of 5.37 edged higher by 19.6 per cent in December 2017.
Fertiliser manufacturing which has the least weightage -- only 2.63 -- edged-up by 3 per cent during the month under review.
Aditi Nayar Principal Economist ICRA said: "An unfavorable base effect for steel and refinery products as well as the continued weak performance of coal contributed to the sequential dip in the core sector growth in December 2017 relative to the upwardly revised 7.4 per cent expansion in November 2017."
"The disaggregated data reveals a broad-based sequential slowdown with six of the eight constituents of the core sector excluding cement and fertilizers displaying a downtick in volume growth."
--IANS
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