India's core industries output rises to 5.6% in December

India's select industrial output rose to 5.6 per cent in December 2016 on the back of higher production of steel, refinery products and electricity, official data showed on Tuesday.

The gauge for select factory output -- Index of Eight Core Industries (ECI) -- had increased by 4.9 per cent in November and risen by 2.9 per cent during the corresponding month of 2015.

The data which represents the output of major industrial sectors was released by the Ministry of Commerce and 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, refinery products and electricity reported healthy output, whereas production of cement, fertilisers, crude oil and natural gas declined.

Electricity generation, which has the highest weightage of 10.32 per cent in the IIP, edged up by 6.00 per cent in December 2016 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 14.9 per cent during the month under review.

Distilling of refinery products, the third most important component as per weightage, was higher by 6.4 per cent in December last year.

However, extraction of crude oil, which has a 5.22 per cent weightage in IIP, decreased by 0.8 per cent during last month.

Conversely, coal mining, with a 4.38 per cent weightage, increased by 4.4 per cent last month.

Cement production, which has the weightage of 2.41 per cent, declined by 8.7 per cent in December 2016.

On the other hand, the sub-index for natural gas output, with a weightage of 1.71 per cent, edged lower by 0.01 per cent during the month under consideration.

Fertiliser manufacturing, which has the least weightage of only 1.25 per cent, fell by 4.7 per cent in December 2016.

--IANS

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