The core sectors include eight industries: coal, crude oil, natural gas, refineries, fertilizers, steel, cement and electricity. The core sector expanded by 3.4% in February, while in March last year, the year-on-year growth rate was 6.3%.
“Year-year growth in the core sector increased slightly in March, mainly due to the high growth of rising temperatures,” said Aditi Nayar, chief economist at ICRA.
Overall, the core sector growth rate fell to 4.4% in FY25, the lowest in four years. In fiscal 24, the core sector grew by 7.6%.
In March, six of eight sectors recorded positive growth, with cement leading 11.6%. Next is the fertilizer industry, which has a growth rate of 8.8%, followed by steel at 7.1%, electricity at 6.2%, coal at 1.6%, and refining products at 0.2%.
The growth of fertilizers was negatively affected, as well as the growth of fertilizers that the company prepared for Kharif’s seeds. In the fourth quarter. Crude oil and natural gas production fell by 1.9% and 12.7%, respectively. Sabnavis said the oil and gas sector remains weak due to lower crude oil prices and rising gas imports.
The eight sectors have a weight of 40.27% in the Industrial Production Index (IIP).
