Update – Performance of Eight Core Industries (May, 2019)

In a report released by the Ministry of Commerce & Industry, the Eight Core Industries Index (ICI) of the Indian Economy has registered a significant improvement of 5.1% in May 2019. However, this is lesser than April 2019 in which a significant revision of coal, cement, crude oil, steel, and electricity production improved its growth from 2.6% to 6.3%.

The monthly Index of Eight Core Industries (ICI) is a production volume index.

• ICI measures collective and individual performance of production in selected eight core industries viz. Coal, Crude Oil, Natural Gas, Petroleum Refinery Products, Fertilizers, Steel, Cement, and Electricity.
• Its objective is to provide an advance indication on production performance of industries of core nature before the release of the Index of Industrial Production (IIP) by the Central Statistics Office (the contribution of core industries is 40.27%).
• The core industries have a direct bearing on the impact on general economic activities as well as industrial activities.
• The maximum weightage is given to Petroleum Refinery production (28.04%) and electricity generation (19.85%).

Source of the Data

The steel production data is sourced from the Joint Plant Committee (JPC), Kolkata. JPC is officially empowered by the Ministry of Steel, to collect data on iron and steel industries.

Ministry of Petroleum and Natural Gas provides data on three industries viz. Crude Oil, Natural Gas, and Refinery products.

The monthly data on electricity generation from Conventional and Renewable sources is supplied by the Central Electricity Authority/Ministry of Power. Department of Fertilizer provides data on the production of fertilizers.

Cement Desk in Department of Industrial Policy & Promotion collects and supplies data on cement production in India.

Each source agency provides data on production for the reference month, the revised data of production of the previous and previous third month.

Update

In May, 2019, 4 of the 8 core sectors have registered an improvement. The maximum growth was observed in Steel sector with significant growths also observed in Electricity, cement and coal sectors.

A fall in the production of crude oil, refinery products, and fertilizers was observed in the same period. Natural gas production has remained unchanged.