Eight core sector industries output grow by 2.9 pc in Mar

Eight core sector industries' growth has slowed down to 2.9 per cent in March 2013 from 3 per cent in the same month last year due to drop in production of coal and crude oil.
"The marginal decline in growth in March was on account of negative growth witnessed in the production of natural gas and low growth recorded in the production of coal and crude oil," an official release said today.
During 2012-13, expansion of the eight industries -- crude oil, natural gas, cement, coal, electricity, steel, petroleum refinery products and fertilisers -- was down at 2.6 per cent against 5 per cent in 2011-12.

The eight industries have a weightage of 37.9 per cent in the overall Index of Industrial Production (IIP).
Production of natural gas contracted by 17.7 per cent in the month under review. Coal and crude oil output growth dropped to 0.3 per cent and 0.2 per cent respectively, against 7.3 per cent and (-) 2.9 per cent respectively in March 2012.
Cement production growth slowed to 6.6 per cent in the reported period against 7.1 per cent in March 2012.

However, petroleum refinery and fertiliser production grew by 5.6 per cent and 3.6 per cent in March 2013 against 1.6 per cent and 1.5 per cent, respectively, in the year-ago period.

Steel output increased by 6.6 per cent from 6.2 per cent in March 2012. Electricity generation grew by 3 per cent from 2.8 per cent.
The growth of eight core sector industries had contracted by 2.5 per cent in February, the first time in 2012-13.