Core industries' output decelerates in February

The pace of India's eight major industries' output decelerated in February to 5.3 per cent compared to an increase of 6.1 per cent in January, official data showed on Monday.

However, on an year-on-year (YoY) basis, the Eight Core Industries (ECI), which represent the output of major sectors like coal, steel, cement and electricity, showed an uptrend. It had inched up by 0.6 per cent in the corresponding month of 2017.

"The combined Index of ECI stood at 123.1 in February 2018, which was 5.3 per cent higher as compared to the index of February 2017," the Ministry of Commerce & Industry said.

"Its cumulative growth during April to February 2017-18 was 4.3 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.

--IANS

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