Core sectors' record 6.8% growth in November 2017

January 2, 2018

According to the data released by the Commerce and Industry Ministry, the eight core sectors expanded at fastest pace in more than year at 6.8% in November 2017.
These eight industries — coal, crude oil, natural gas, refinery products, fertilisers, steel, cement and electricity — had witnessed a growth of 3.2 per cent in November 2016.

Key Facts

The output growth in November 2017 is highest since October 2016, when these core sectors had witnessed 7.1% rise. The growth was recorded on account of robust performance in segments like refinery (rose by 8.2%), steel (16.6%) and cement (17.3%) on an annual basis in November 2017.
Crude oil and natural gas output too registered positive growth in November 2017. But coal output growth rate recorded a negative growth. Cumulatively, the growth in the eight core sectors during April-November this fiscal slowed to 3.9% as against 5.3% in the same period last fiscal.

Core industry can be defined as main industry of economy. In most countries, there is particular industry that seems to be backbone of all other industries and it qualifies to be t core industry. In India, there are eight core sectors comprising of coal, crude oil, natural gas, refinery products, fertilisers, steel, cement and electricity.
The electricity has the maximum weight of 10.32% followed by Steel (6.68%), Petroleum Refinery (5.94%), Crude Oil production (5.22 %), Coal production (4.38 %), Cement (2.41%), Natural Gas production (1.71 %) and Fertilizer production (1.25%). Healthy growth in these key eight sectors has positive implications on Index of Industrial Production (IIP) as these eight segments account for about 41% of the total factory output.