India's core industry index shows positive growth in January

The industrial output index for India's eight core industries registered growth in January, pushed up by higher coal, refinery products, fertilizers, cement and electricity output, an official statement said.

The index representing major infrastructure sectors had also recorded growth in December 2015.

The index showed a rise of 2.9 percent in January 2016 on a month-on-month basis, compared to the 0.9 percent marginal growth in December 2015, official data showed on Monday.

The core industries fell by 1.3 percent in November last year.

The select factory output index for January is more than the growth of 2.3 percent achieved during the corresponding month in 2015, a commerce ministry release said.

This index comprises 38 percent of the total weightage of items included in the Index of Industrial Production (IIP).

Its cumulative growth from April to January 2015-16 stood at 2 percent, as compared to 5.3 percent during the corresponding period of 2014-15.

Out of the eight core industries, coal and cement reported healthy output numbers. However, production of oil, natural gas, and steel dipped in the period under review.

Electricity recorded 6 percent change in January 2016 as compared with 3.3 percent in January 2015. Its cumulative index during April to December 2015-16 rose by 7.6 percent over the corresponding period of previous year.

Distilling of refinery products, the third most important component as per weightage, increased by 4.8 percent in January.

Extraction of crude oil, which has a 5.21 percent weightage in IIP, fell by 4.6 percent during the month under review in comparison with 2.3 percent decline of January 2015.

Coal mining, with a 4.38 percent weightage, increased by 9.1 percent.

The sub-index for natural gas output, with a weightage of 1.71 percent, slipped by 15.3 percent in the month under consideration.

The fertilisers manufacturing with a weightage of only 1.25 percent rose by 6.2 percent.

Steel declined by 2.8 percent in January 2016.