Growth in eight core industries fell to 1.4 per cent in February, against 6.1 per cent in same month last year.

This was lower than the 1.8 per cent growth seen in January.

Sharp contraction in steel output and lower growth in electricity generation weighed down on performance in February.

For the April-February 2015 period, core industries output — which enjoys weightage of 37.9 per cent in IIP — grew 3.8 per cent. This was lower than 4.2 per cent recorded in same period last year. Interestingly, coal production grew to 11.6 per cent in February, much higher than 0.9 per cent in the same month last year.

The global commodity price slump and high imports had a telling effect on steel output which contracted 4.4 per cent in February. This is against a growth of 11.5 per cent in same month last year.

While crude oil output declined 1.9 per cent (against a growth of 1.9 per cent), natural gas output contracted 8.1 per cent (-4.4 per cent).

Refinery products output too contracted 1 per cent (2 per cent growth) and cement output grew 2.7 per cent (2.4 per cent).

Electricity generation grew 5.2 percent in February, lower than 11.5 per cent in same month last year.

Subdued performance Anis Chakravarty, Senior Director, Deloitte in India, said that the core infrastructure sector performance remains subdued.

“Overall, we would expect the core performance to meaningfully pick up during the next fiscal when the Government’s infrastructure push comes to fruition,” Chakravarty said.

srivats.kr@thehindu.co.in

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