India's October core industrial output rises to 4.8%

The output growth of India's eight major industries accelerated in October 2018 to 4.8 per cent from 4.3 per cent in September, official data showed on Friday.

However, on a year-on-year (YoY) basis, the expansion rate of Index of Eight Core Industries (ECI) was lower than the 5 per cent growth reported for October 2017.

The ECI index comprises 40.27 per cent of the weight of items included in the Index of Industrial Production (IIP).

"The combined Index of Eight Core Industries stood at 134.8 in October, 2018, which was 4.8 per cent higher as compared to the index of October, 2017," the ministry said in a statement.

"Its cumulative growth during April to October, 2018-19 was 5.4 per cent."

According to Aditi Nayar, Principal Economist, ICRA: "The mild rise in the core sector growth in October 2018 relative to the previous month was led by a healthy uptick in cement, coal and electricity, whereas fertilisers, crude oil and natural gas disappointed with a YoY contraction."

"The modest uptick in the core sector growth, in conjunction with the broad-based improvement in the YoY growth performance of a majority of other early indicators such as auto production, fuel consumption and exports in October 2018, portends a pickup in IIP growth to 6.5-7.5 per cent in that month."

--IANS

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