Infrastructure industries grew by 5.8% on year in February, largely benefiting from a low base as the core sector output had contracted 3.3% a year ago.
Except crude oil and fertiliser production, all other core sector segments — coal, natural gas, refinery products, steel, cement and electricity — registered a positive annual growth in February.
However, the production level of crude oil, refinery products and fertiliser are still lower than the pre-Covid level (February 2020). Production of other core segments are also just above the pre-Covid level.
“This shows that there is still a long way to go so far as the revival of core sector output is concerned and going forward, the disruption to the global supply chain may further impinge on the availability of key raw materials like natural gas, coal, etc, in the domestic market due to the Russia-Ukraine conflict,” said DK Pant, India Rating chief economist.
The growth rate of the eight infrastructure sectors — coal, crude oil, natural gas, refinery products, fertilisers, steel, cement and electricity — stood at 11% in April-February of this fiscal, against a decline of 8.1% during the same period last fiscal.
According to the data, the production of coal rose by 6.6%, natural gas by 12.5%, refinery products by 8.8% and cement by 5% in February.