The output of core sectors had increased by 7.2% in February and 4.8% in the year-ago month. The previous low was 0.7% in October 2022.
New Delhi : The output of eight infrastructure sectors registered a growth of 3.6% in March 2023, its slowest pace since October, showed government data released on Friday, April 28.
The output of core sectors had increased by 7.2% in February and 4.8% in the year-ago month. The previous low was 0.7% in October 2022.
The output of crude oil declined by 2.8%, power by 1.8% and cement by 0.8% in March this year, PTI reported, citing official data.
On the other hand, coal production recorded an increase of 12.2%, fertilisers 9.7%, steel 8.8%, natural gas 2.8% and refinery products 1.5%.
The growth rate of eight infrastructure sectors – coal, crude oil, natural gas, refinery products, fertilisers, steel, cement and electricity – stood at 7.6% in FY23, down from 10.4% recorded in 2021-22.
Sunil Sinha, Principal Economist, India Ratings and Research told Mint, “With the weakening global and domestic demand, Ind-Ra believes that the growth in infrastructure industries would be under pressure in the ongoing fiscal year. As a result, the agency expects the core sector annual growth in FY24 at around 5%.”
“The halving in the year-on-year core sector growth to a five month low of 3.6% in March 2023 from 7.2% in February 2023, was fairly broad-based, with only coal and crude oil displaying a sequential improvement” ICRA chief economist Aditi Nayar told Mint.
“Output of some of the sectors is likely to have been dampened by the unseasonal rainfall, such as electricity and cement, which displayed a year-on-year contraction in March 2023 along with crude oil. At the same time, coal, fertilisers and steel displayed a healthy expansion in excess of 8% in March 2023, which is encouraging,” she added.
Dampened by a high base and heavy rainfall, the year-on-year performance of most of the available high frequency indicators weakened in March 2023, relative to February 2023, similar to the trend in the core sector, she told the newspaper.
The core sector or key infrastructure industries have a 40.27% weight in the overall index of industrial production.
Source: PTI
