India's core sector growth cools slightly to 8.0% in July

In July 2022, India’s eight core sectors had posted a growth of 4.8 percent.

India's eight core sectors posted a growth of 8.0 percent in July, according to data released by the Ministry of Commerce and Industry on August 31.

At 8.0 percent, the growth in India's eight key infrastructure industries - coal, crude oil, steel, cement, electricity, fertilisers, refinery products, and natural gas - in July is slightly lower than the 8.2 percent recorded in June.

The figure for June has now been revised to 8.3 percent.

In July 2022, core sector growth was 4.8 percent.

For April-July, core sector output has posted a growth of 6.4 percent, down from 11.5 percent in the first four months of 2022-23.

The continued robust performance of the core sector industries in July was down to three sectors in particular: coal, natural gas, and steel.

Coal output rose by 14.9 percent year-on-year in July, up from a growth of 9.8 percent in June, while natural gas production grew at more than twice the rate it did in June – 8.9 percent as against 3.5 percent. Like coal, growth in steel production was also in double-digit territory, coming in at 13.5 percent. However, this was down from an increase of 20.8 percent in June.

These three sectors together account for more than 35 percent of the combined index of eight core industries.

While the other five sectors dragged down overall output growth, production of crude oil and electricity showed an improvement.

With the eight core industries making up more than 40 percent of the weight of the Index of Industrial Production (IIP), industrial growth may be little changed in July from June. India's industrial output had grown by 3.7 percent in June – the lowest in three months – as per data released on August 11. Data for July will be released on September 12.