New Delhi, Jan 31 (Agency) India’s core sector output grew 7.4% year-on-year (YoY) in December 2022 as compared to 5.7% a month ago, showed the data released by the Commerce Ministry on Tuesday. The production of coal, electricity, steel, cement, fertilizers, refinery products and natural gas increased in December 2022 over the corresponding month of last year. Crude oil output declined during this period.
The combined Index of Eight Core Industries (ICI) measures combined and individual performance of production of eight core industries viz. coal, crude oil, natural gas, refinery products, fertilizers, steel, cement and electricity. The eight core industries comprise 40.27% of the weight of items included in the Index of Industrial Production (IIP). As per the official data, coal production increased by 11.5% in December, 2022 over December, 2021 while crude oil production declined by 1.2 per cent in this period. Output of natural gas, petroleum refinery products and fertilizers grew 2.6%, 3.7% and 7.3% respectively in December 2022 over December 2021. Steel production increased by 9.2% on year in December 2022.
Cement and electricity output grew by 9.1% and 10% respectively in December. Commenting on core sector data, Dr Sunil Sinha, Principal Economist, India Ratings and Research said that output of all the sectors are now higher than the pre-COVID level (February 2020). “The output of the eight core sector stood 13.6% higher than the pre-COVID level. Even the momentum (month-on-month seasonally adjusted) was at a 10-month high of 3.2% in December 2022, up from 2.5% in the previous month,” said Dr Sinha.