(ET)
India’s core sector growth slowed to 4.3% in March after it grew 6.0% in February 2022, data released by the commerce and industry ministry showed on Friday.
The cumulative growth rate of Index of Eight Core Industries (ICI) stood at 10.4% during April-March 2021-22 compared to the same year in the previous fiscal. The production of natural gas, refinery products, fertilizers, steel, cement and electricity industries increased in March over the corresponding period of last year. Growth of the eight core sectors in February has been revised to 6.0% from 5.8% earlier while growth in the final growth rate for December 2021 is revised to 4.1% from its provisional level of 3.8%.
Six sectors including natural gas (7.6%), refinery products (6.2%), steel (3.7%), cement (8.8%), fertilisers (15.3%) and electricity (4.9%) reported a growth in the month of March. Coal and Crude oil sectors witnessed a contraction of 0.1% and 3.4% respectively this month on a year-on-year basis. The fertiliser sector saw a growth of 15.3% in March 2022 against a contraction of 5% seen in March 2021 and a contraction of 1.4% in February 2022.
