India's core sectors growth slows down to 1.8% in January

New Delhi: Growth of eight core sectors slowed down to 1.8 percent in January due to fall in output of crude oil, refinery products and electricity, official data showed Thursday.

Eight infrastructure sectors -- coal, crude oil, natural gas, refinery products, fertilisers, steel, cement and electricity -- had expanded by 6.2 percent in January 2018.

Production of crude oil, refinery products and electricity contracted by 4.3 percent, 2.6 percent and 0.4 percent, respectively, in January.

Growth rate of coal and cement sectors slowed to 1.7 percent and 11 percent in January as against 3.8 percent and 19.6 percent in January 2018, respectively.

However, natural gas, fertilisers and steel output grew by 6.2 percent, 10.5 percent and 8.2 percent respectively in the month under review.

Sluggish infrastructure sector growth would also have impact on the Index of Industrial Production (IIP) as these segments account for about 41 percent of the total factory output.

According to the Commerce and Industry Ministry data, during April-January 2018-19, the eight sectors recorded a growth rate of 4.5 percent against 4.1 percent in the same period of the previous fiscal.