The eight core industries—coal, crude oil, natural gas, refinery products, fertilisers, steel, cement, and electricity—contribute over 40% to the Index of Industrial Production
| Photo Credit:
AMIT DAVE/Reuters
India’s core sector growth—across eight industries—slowed down to an eight-month low of 0.5 percent in April, indicative of a steep dip from the 4.6 per cent in the previous month, according to provisional numbers released by the government on Tuesday.
April 2024 core sector growth stood at 6.9 per cent. These eight core industries—coal, crude oil, natural gas, refinery products, fertilisers, steel, cement, and electricity—comprise 40.27 per cent of the weight of items included in the Index of Industrial Production (IIP).
IIP numbers are expected next week, and stuttered core sector growth numbers indicate that they may not be very encouraging.
April’s figure marks a significant slowdown from the 5.1 per cent growth recorded in January 2025. It pales against the 4.5 per cent cumulative growth for FY25.
According to Aditi Nayar, Chief Economist, Head – Research & Outreach, ICRA Ltd, performance of the core sector deteriorated significantly, with the deceleration being “broad-based.”
“Based on the tepid rise in the core sector and the performance of the other available high frequency indicators, ICRA expects the IIP growth to moderate sharply to 1.0% in April 2025. The healthy growth in non-oil exports may provide an upside, unless the same represents round-tripping of some imports,” she said.
Production in three sectors – crude oil, refinery products and fertilisers – contracted in April.
Crude oil production contracted by 2.8 per cent annually in April, compared to a 1.9 per cent contraction in March.
Refinery production contracted 4.5 per cent in April, against a 0.2 per cent growth registered in the previous month.
Fertiliser production contracted 4.2 per cent in April, compared to an 8.8 per cent growth in March.
Coal production increased by 3.5 per cent in April, up from the 1.6 per cent growth registered in March.
Natural Gas production increased by 0.4 per cent in April as compared to the 12.7 per cent contraction in March.
Steel production increased by 3 per cent in April, but growth was slower than in March when it was 9.3 per cent.
Cement production, too, reflected a similar picture. It increased by 6.7 per cent in April, but growth was slower than in March when it was 12.2 per cent.
Electricity generation increased by 1.0 per cent in April, but growth was subdued compared to March, when it was 7.5 per cent.
Published on May 20, 2025
The eight core industries—coal, crude oil, natural gas, refinery products, fertilisers, steel, cement, and electricity—contribute over 40% to the Index of Industrial Production
| Photo Credit:
AMIT DAVE/Reuters
India’s core sector growth—across eight industries—slowed down to an eight-month low of 0.5 percent in April, indicative of a steep dip from the 4.6 per cent in the previous month, according to provisional numbers released by the government on Tuesday.
April 2024 core sector growth stood at 6.9 per cent. These eight core industries—coal, crude oil, natural gas, refinery products, fertilisers, steel, cement, and electricity—comprise 40.27 per cent of the weight of items included in the Index of Industrial Production (IIP).
IIP numbers are expected next week, and stuttered core sector growth numbers indicate that they may not be very encouraging.
April’s figure marks a significant slowdown from the 5.1 per cent growth recorded in January 2025. It pales against the 4.5 per cent cumulative growth for FY25.
According to Aditi Nayar, Chief Economist, Head – Research & Outreach, ICRA Ltd, performance of the core sector deteriorated significantly, with the deceleration being “broad-based.”
“Based on the tepid rise in the core sector and the performance of the other available high frequency indicators, ICRA expects the IIP growth to moderate sharply to 1.0% in April 2025. The healthy growth in non-oil exports may provide an upside, unless the same represents round-tripping of some imports,” she said.
Production in three sectors – crude oil, refinery products and fertilisers – contracted in April.
Crude oil production contracted by 2.8 per cent annually in April, compared to a 1.9 per cent contraction in March.
Refinery production contracted 4.5 per cent in April, against a 0.2 per cent growth registered in the previous month.
Fertiliser production contracted 4.2 per cent in April, compared to an 8.8 per cent growth in March.
Coal production increased by 3.5 per cent in April, up from the 1.6 per cent growth registered in March.
Natural Gas production increased by 0.4 per cent in April as compared to the 12.7 per cent contraction in March.
Steel production increased by 3 per cent in April, but growth was slower than in March when it was 9.3 per cent.
Cement production, too, reflected a similar picture. It increased by 6.7 per cent in April, but growth was slower than in March when it was 12.2 per cent.
Electricity generation increased by 1.0 per cent in April, but growth was subdued compared to March, when it was 7.5 per cent.
Published on May 20, 2025
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The point of using Lorem Ipsum is that it has a more-or-less normal distribution of letters, as opposed to using ‘Content here, content here’, making
The point of using Lorem Ipsum is that it has a more-or-less normal distribution of letters, as opposed to using ‘Content here, content here’, making it look like readable English. Many desktop publishing packages and web page editors now use Lorem Ipsum as their default model text, and a search for ‘lorem ipsum’ will uncover many web sites still in their infancy.
It is a long established fact that a reader will be distracted by the readable content of a page when looking at its layout. The point of using Lorem Ipsum is that it has a more-or-less normal distribution
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