A decline in growth of electricity generation and production of crude oil, coal, natural gas and fertilizers pulled down the growth of eight core industries by 2.5% in February 2013, the first time in 2012-13.
The eight core industries ?coal, crude oil, natural gas, petroleum refinery products, fertilisers, steel, cement and electricity ? have a combined weight of 37.9% in the Index of Industrial Production (IIP). The combined index was 144.4 in the month. The decline will reflect in the IIP numbers of February, which will be released in the second week of this month. The core sector grew 7.7% in February 2012.
?The decline in growth in February 2013 was on account of negative growth witnessed in electricity generation and in the production of crude oil, coal, natural gas and fertilizers,? said a commerce ministry statement. Natural gas production declined as high as 20.1% in February against 16.8% fall in January and 7.6% contraction in February, 2012. Natural gas output has been declining for more than a year now.
While coal output fell 8%, electricity generation was down 4.1% and crude oil production declined 4%. The negative performance in reporting month pulled down the cumulative growth in the 11 months of 2012-13 ended February to 2.6 % against 5.2 % in the corresponding period in 2011-12.
?Though there is no doubt that there is volatility in growth, one month data is too difficult to interpret. This month’s data exaggerates the weakness in the core sector and we expect the IIP to be around the same range as last month,? said D K Joshi, chief economist, Crisil.
During the month, fertiliser output too shrunk by 4% against 4.1 % growth in February, 2012.
However, cement output rose by 3.9 % against 9.8% growth in the same month last year.