<p>New Delhi: Output growth of eight core infrastructure sectors that include cement, steel, coal and electricity, dipped to an eight-month low of 0.5 per cent in April from the upwardly revised 4.6 per cent expansion recorded in March, as per official data released on Tuesday.</p><p>On a year-on-year basis, the production of cement, coal, steel, electricity and natural gas recorded positive growth in April, data released by the Ministry of Commerce and Industry showed.</p><p>However, only two out of the eight sectors posted sequential rise in production. “The deceleration was broad-based, led by six of the eight sectors barring coal and natural gas,” said Aditi Nayar, Chief Economist at ICRA Ltd.</p><p>Paras Jasrai, Associate Director at India Ratings and Research, said the output in core sectors were impacted in April due to the US tariff policies.</p>.Retail inflation declines to 6-year low in April.<p>The output of refinery products dropped 4.5 per cent y-o-y after a gap of seven months and was the sharpest since November 2022 possibly due to the decline in global commodity prices, which made imports more remunerative.</p><p>Fertilisers production dipped by 4.2 per cent year-on-year in April, the worst performance in 14 months. The output growth of steel and electricity sectors slowed to 3 per cent and 1 per cent, respectively.</p><p>However, growth in coal and cement helped in keeping the overall core sector in the positive. Cement output grew by 6.7 per cent year-on-year, possibly due to government capex push, said Jasrai. </p><p>Coal output growth improved to a three-month high of 3.5 per cent in April from 1.6 per cent in the previous month.</p><p>The core sector has a weight of 40.27 per cent in the Index of Industrial Production (IIP).</p><p>“Based on the tepid rise in the core sector and the performance of the other available high frequency indicators, ICRA expects the IIP growth to moderate sharply to 1 per cent in April,” said Nayar. “The healthy growth in non-oil exports may provide an upside, unless the same represents round-tripping of some imports,” she added.</p><p>Jasrai said the IIP growth is likely to be in the range of 1-2 per cent in April. In March the IIP growth stood at 3 per cent, as per the latest official data. The National Statistics Office (NSO) is scheduled to release April IIP data on 28th of this month.</p><p>The cumulative growth rate of the Index of Eight Core Industries in the 12 months of the 2024-25 financial year stood at 4.5 per cent.</p>
<p>New Delhi: Output growth of eight core infrastructure sectors that include cement, steel, coal and electricity, dipped to an eight-month low of 0.5 per cent in April from the upwardly revised 4.6 per cent expansion recorded in March, as per official data released on Tuesday.</p><p>On a year-on-year basis, the production of cement, coal, steel, electricity and natural gas recorded positive growth in April, data released by the Ministry of Commerce and Industry showed.</p><p>However, only two out of the eight sectors posted sequential rise in production. “The deceleration was broad-based, led by six of the eight sectors barring coal and natural gas,” said Aditi Nayar, Chief Economist at ICRA Ltd.</p><p>Paras Jasrai, Associate Director at India Ratings and Research, said the output in core sectors were impacted in April due to the US tariff policies.</p>.Retail inflation declines to 6-year low in April.<p>The output of refinery products dropped 4.5 per cent y-o-y after a gap of seven months and was the sharpest since November 2022 possibly due to the decline in global commodity prices, which made imports more remunerative.</p><p>Fertilisers production dipped by 4.2 per cent year-on-year in April, the worst performance in 14 months. The output growth of steel and electricity sectors slowed to 3 per cent and 1 per cent, respectively.</p><p>However, growth in coal and cement helped in keeping the overall core sector in the positive. Cement output grew by 6.7 per cent year-on-year, possibly due to government capex push, said Jasrai. </p><p>Coal output growth improved to a three-month high of 3.5 per cent in April from 1.6 per cent in the previous month.</p><p>The core sector has a weight of 40.27 per cent in the Index of Industrial Production (IIP).</p><p>“Based on the tepid rise in the core sector and the performance of the other available high frequency indicators, ICRA expects the IIP growth to moderate sharply to 1 per cent in April,” said Nayar. “The healthy growth in non-oil exports may provide an upside, unless the same represents round-tripping of some imports,” she added.</p><p>Jasrai said the IIP growth is likely to be in the range of 1-2 per cent in April. In March the IIP growth stood at 3 per cent, as per the latest official data. The National Statistics Office (NSO) is scheduled to release April IIP data on 28th of this month.</p><p>The cumulative growth rate of the Index of Eight Core Industries in the 12 months of the 2024-25 financial year stood at 4.5 per cent.</p>