India's eight core sectors recorded a cumulative growth of 2.3% year-on-year in February, which marks a slowdown as compared to 4% in the preceding month, as per the data released by the Ministry of Commerce and Industry on Friday.
The decline comes amid a slump in crude oil output, which fell by 5.2%. Its cumulative index declined by 2.5% during April to February, 2025-26 over corresponding period of the previous year. Natural gas production continued to slip, but maintained a decline of 5% recorded since last month.
Cement output rose significantly by 9.3% year-on-year, however in the preceding month, the growth stood at 11.3%, indicating a slight slump in construction activity.
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Steel production remained robust, rising by 7.2% in February after a 11.5% climb in January. The coal sector witnessed an uptick of 2.3%, after an 3.1% jump in the previous month.
Fertiliser output also increased by 3.4% in February, after 3.7% growth in December.
However, the output of petroleum refinery products, which hold the most weightage in the index of eight core industries, declined by 1% after remaining flat in the previous month.
The eight core industries constitute about 40% of India's Index of Industrial Production (IIP).
The IIP growth during the month of January also moderated to 0.4%. This was the lowest in the past 14 months.
The Index of Industrial Production (IIP) grew by 4.8% year-on-year during the month under review, as compared to 7.8% in December. The slump was driven by the manufacturing sector, which grew at 4.8%. This was led by the production of basic metals, motor vehicles, trailers and semi-trailers and non-metallic mineral products, the ministry said in a release.
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