India's core industries' output declines in May

Output of India's core industries declined in May after five consecutive months of rise, official data showed on Thursday.

The gauge for select factory output -- Index of Eight Core Industries (ECI) -- which represents major infrastructure sectors inched up by 2.8 per cent in May on the back of lower production of electricity and refinery products.

The ECI had risen by 8.5 per cent in April and 4.4 per cent in the corresponding month of last year.

The index comprises 38 per cent of the total weightage of items included in the Index of Industrial Production (IIP).

According to the data furnished by the Ministry of Commerce and Industry, the combined ECI index stood at 183.7 in May 2016.

Under the ECI, fertilisers and coal industries reported healthy output, whereas production of natrual gas, crude oil, refinery products, cement, steel and electricity declined.

Electricity generation, which has the highest weightage of 10.32 per cent in the IIP, augmented by 4.6 per cent in May, as compared with the corresponding month of 2015.

Steel production, the second most important component as per weightage of 6.68 per cent, increased by only 3.2 per cent in the month under review.

Distilling of refinery products, the third most important component as per weightage, inched up by 1.2 per cent in May, as compared with the corresponding month of last year.

However, extraction of crude oil, which has a 5.21 per cent weightage in IIP, decreased by 3.3 per cent during last month.

In contrast, coal mining, with a 4.38 per cent weightage, increased by 5.5 per cent last month.

Further, cement production, which has the weightage of 2.41 per cent, increased by 2.4 per cent in May 2016.

On the other hand, the sub-index for natural gas output, with a weightage of 1.71 per cent declined by 6.9 per cent during the month under consideration.

But the fertiliser manufacturing, which has the least weightage of only 1.25 per cent, surged the maximum among all the sub-indices. The production rose 14.8 per cent in May.

--IANS

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