Eight-month infra growth slows to 3.9% from 5.3%

NEW DELHI: Eight core sectors grew by 6.8 per cent in November 2017, mainly helped by a robust performance in segments like refinery, steel and cement, official data showed on Monday.

The eight infrastructure sectors – coal, crude oil, natural gas, refinery products, fertilisers, steel, cement and electricity – had witnessed a growth of 3.2 per cent in November 2016.

The output of refinery products, steel and cement rose by 8.2 per cent, 16.6 per cent and 17.3 per cent, respectively on an annual basis, according to the data released by the commerce and industry ministry.

Crude oil and natural gas output too registered a positive growth during the month under review.

On the other hand, coal output recorded a negative growth during the month.

Cumulatively, the growth in the eight core sectors during April-november this fiscal slowed to 3.9 per cent as against 5.3 per cent in the same period last fiscal. A healthy growth in key sectors will have positive implications on the Index of Industrial Production (IIP) as these eight segments account for about 41 per cent of the total factory output.

Meanwhile, retail inflation for industrial workers rose to 3.97 per cent in November, 2017 mainly due to surge in prices of food items, kerosene and cooking gas.

“The year-on-year inflation measured by monthly CPI-IW (Consumer Price Index-industrial Workers) stood at 3.97 per cent for November, 2017 as compared to 3.24 per cent for the previous month (October, 2017) and 2.59 per cent during the corresponding month (November 2016) of the previous year,” the labour ministry said in a statement.

According to the statement, the food inflation stood at 3.91 per cent in November against 2.26 per cent of the previous month (October, 2017) and 1.66 per cent during the corresponding month (November 2016) of the previous year.

The All-india CPI-IW for November increased by 1 point and pegged at 288. On one-month percentage change, it increased by 0.35 per cent between October and November, when compared with the decrease of 0.36 per cent in the corresponding months of last year. The maximum upward pressure to the change in current index came from food group contributing 1.10 percentage points to the total change.

At item level, Wheat Atta, Eggs (Hen), Goat Meat, Milk (Cow), Onion, Tamarind, Bitter Gourd, Cabbage, Carrot, Coconut, Potato, Tomato, Cooking Gas, Electricity Charges, Firewood, Kerosene Oil, Private Tuition Fee, Petrol, Barber Charges, etc, are responsible for the increase in index.

However, this increase was checked by Arhar Dal, Gram Dal, Masur Dal, Urd Dal, Groundnut Oil, Fish Fresh, Poultry (Chicken), Chillies Green, Garlic, Ginger, Brinjal, Cauliflower, French Bean, Green Coriander Leaves, Methi, Palak, Radish, Apple, Banana, etc, putting downward pressure on the index.

At centre level, Giridih reported the maximum increase of (7 points) followed by Salem and Puducherry (6 points each) and Rourkela, Sholapur, Mercara and Ghaziabad (5 points each). Among others, 4 points increase was observed in 5 centres, 3 points in 16 centres, 2 points in 13 centres and 1 point in 12 centres.

On the contrary, Kolkata recorded a maximum decrease of 3 points followed by Mungerjamalpur, Amritsar, Chandigarh and Doom Dooma Tinsukia (2 points each). Among others, 1 point decrease was observed in 7 centres. Rest of the 13 centres indices remained stationary.

The indices of 34 centres are above all-india index and 42 centres indices are below national average.