India's core sector shoots by 6.8% in November

The core sector grew by 6.8% in November compared to 0.1% in October and 3.7% in the year ago. This is certainly one of the best pieces macro economic data India has got in a long time, core sector grew by 6.8% compared to just 0.3% in October, reports CNBC-TV18's Latha Venkatesh.

The original number of October had come in at 0.1%, but now even that is getting revised higher. But more importantly, within the core sector coal has grown by 4.9% in November. For the last three months, until October it was contracting which is a very good performance. Likewise refineries grew by 11.2%, it had contracted by 2% in October. Cement was a super performer with 16.6% growth versus zero percent growth in October. Cement sector also has over capacity issues, so there is a bit of a zigzag in the output. Electricity has been doing reasonably well at steady clip, but November has been excellent with 14.1% growth. There are still some laggards of natural gas, crude oil and fertilizers, but the overall performance is very good. Steel also was a positive performer. Since the core sector forms a 38% of the IIP, which grew at 6.8% there are chances that the November IIP may come positive. Economist have not yet done their math, but the figures could be between 3-4%, which is a big swing from -5.2% seen in October. So, things are not as bleak the October number made out to be. T This news was broken earlier by CNBC-TV18, Montek Ahluwalia spoke to the channel last week and said that the coal and power performance in November is far better. Also watch the accompanying video.