India's core industries output rises 3.2% in August

India's select industrial output rose by 3.2 per cent in August on the back of higher production of steel, fertilisers and refinery products, official data showed on Friday.

The gauge for select factory output -- Index of Eight Core Industries (ECI) -- had increased by 3.00 per cent in July and had risen by 3.2 per cent in the corresponding month of 2015.

The cumulative growth during April to August increased by 4.5 per cent.

The data which represents the output of major infrastructure sectors was released by the Ministry of Commerce & Industry.

The ECI comprises of nearly 38 per cent weightage of the items included in the Index of Industrial Production (IIP).

The index includes sectors like coal, crude oil, natural gas, refinery products, fertilisers, steel (alloy and non-alloy), cement and electricity.

Under the ECI, steel, fertilisers, refinery products and cement reported healthy output, whereas production of coal, natrual gas and crude oil declined.

Electricity generation, which has the highest weightage of 10.32 per cent in the IIP, inched up by 0.1 per cent in August, as compared with the corresponding month of 2015.

Steel production, the second most important component as per weightage of 6.68 per cent, surged the maximum among all the sub-indices. It zoomed by 17 per cent in the month under review.

Distilling of refinery products, the third most important component as per weightage, was higher by 3.5 per cent in August, as compared with the corresponding month of last year.

However, extraction of crude oil, which has a 5.21 per cent weightage in IIP, decreased by 3.9 per cent during last month.

Coal mining, with a 4.38 per cent weightage, decreased by 9.2 per cent last month.

Cement production, which has the weightage of 2.41 per cent, increased by 3.1 per cent in August 2016.

On the other hand, the sub-index for natural gas output, with a weightage of 1.71 per cent declined by 5.7 per cent during the month under consideration.

In contrast, fertiliser manufacturing, which has the least weightage of only 1.25 per cent rose by 5.7 per cent in August.

--IANS

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