India’s eight core industries grew at their slowest rate in over four years in June, rising 0.2% as compared to the same month last year, data released by the Ministry of Commerce and Industry showed on Wednesday. The core industries had expanded 7.8% in June 2018.
The growth in May was 4.3%, while the cumulative growth for April-June was 3.5%.
The eight core industries are coal, crude oil, natural gas, refinery products, fertilisers, steel, cement and electricity. Among these, coal production expanded by 3.2%, fertilisers by 1.5%, steel 6.9% and electricity by 7.3%, the government said. On the other hand, crude oil declined by 6.8%, natural oil by 2.1%, petroleum refinery products by 9.3% and cement production by 1.5%.
The base year used for calculations is 2011-’12. The growth in June is the slowest since the 0.5% expansion in April 2015, according to The Economic Times.
The core infrastructure sector constitutes 40% of the country’s total industrial production. The weakness will be a drag on factory output, data for which is due on August 9, Bloomberg reported.
Meanwhile, Congress criticised the Bharatiya Janata Party government over the data.
“Denial is not just a river...,” the Congress said in a tweet. “It is the default reaction of the BJP Govt when asked for accountability on the state of the economy. Just what will it take for the Govt to acknowledge that a growth of mere 0.2% in core industries requires emergency action?”
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