New Delhi: With the phased implementation of unlockdowns, production in the country's eight core sectors has shown a slight improvement, contracting to 9.6 per cent in July as against -12.9 per cent that was witnessed in the month of June.
The production of 8 core sectors had expanded by 2.6 per cent in July 2019.
This is the fifth consecutive month of contraction for the core industries, according to the government data released on Monday.
This data on these core eight sectors coal, crude oil, natural gas, refinery products, fertiliser, steel, cement and electricity comes at a time when the government is gradually easing restrictions imposed in March to curb the spread of Covid-19.
The eight sectors collectively have a 40 per cent weightage on the Index of Industrial Production (IIP).
As per the data, output of all other sectors showed contraction in July except the fertiliser segment, which continued to grow for the third straight month in July. Interestingly, the farm sector has remained relatively unaffected by the national lockdown.
"The output of steel, refinery products, cement, natural gas, coal, crude oil and electricity declined by 16.5 per cent, 13.9 per cent, 13.5 per cent, 10.2 per cent, 5.7 per cent, 4.9 per cent and 2.3 per cent, respectively," the data showed.
Ahead of the release of this data, the BSE sensex snapped its six-session winning run and plummeted 839 points on Monday. Similarly, the NSE Nifty tanked 260.10 points or 2.23 per cent to end at 11,387.50.
