The eight core sector industries grew by 3.9 per cent in January this year, up from 2.2 per cent in the same month in 2012.

However, the cumulative expansion of these industries in the April-January period of 2012-13 slowed to 3.2 per cent from five per cent in the same period last fiscal, according to the official data released today.

The eight industries include crude oil, petroleum refinery products, coal, electricity, cement and finished steel and have a weightage of 37.9 per cent in the overall Index of Industrial Production (IIP).

“The low growth in January was on account of negative growth witnessed in the production of crude oil, natural gas, fertiliser and cement,” it said.

Production of natural gas and crude oil contracted by 16.8 per cent and 0.2 per cent, respectively, in the month under review. Fertiliser output too shrunk by 9.1 per cent against four per cent growth in January 2012.

Cement output too dipped by 6.6 per cent in January from 10.9 per cent growth in the same period last year.

Coal output slowed by 2.3 per cent from 7.7 per cent in January 2012.

However, petroleum refinery output and steel production grew by 10.5 per cent and 9.4 per cent against 4.6 per cent and 4.5 per cent, respectively, in January 2012.

Electricity generation too grew by 5.9 per cent in the month under review.

The growth of eight core sector industries had declined to 2.6 per cent and 1.8 per cent in December 2012 and November 2012 from 4.9 per cent and 7.8 per cent, respectively.

Belying expectations of recovery, economic growth slipped further in the July-September quarter to 5.3 per cent, raising fears that the slowdown may pull down the annual growth rate to decade’s low level.

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