Core sector clocks 6% growth in Dec

The six core sectors grew 6% in December, which is likely to drive up industrial growth and make up for any loss of farm production to sustain the Indian economic growth story. In December 2008, the core sectors had grown by 0.7% only. The high growth in the six core sectors — crude oil, petroleum refinery products, coal, electricity, cement and finished steel, having a weight of over 26% in the industrial production index, may take the Industrial growth to 9% this fiscal against just 7.6% so far. Finished steel and crude oil turned the table, expanding by 9.6% and 1.1% respectively, against 8% and 0.3% contraction in the same period last year. Cement remained at top of the chart growing by 11%, though it was less than 11.6% in December, 2008. However, oil production — both crude and refinery — and coal output remained sluggish. For the first nine months of this fiscal, these sectors grew by 4.8% compared to 3.2% a year ago. When these six industries grew by 5.3% in November 2009, industrial production expanded by more than 11%. "This growth is because of base effect. But I think some momentum is picking up in the economy and also in the core sector," Crisil principal economist DK Joshi said. Coal output, however, declined by 2.5% to 48.79 million tonne, while crude production expanded by a paltry 1.1% at 2.9 million tone, and refinery output grew by a meagre 0.9% at 12.6 million tone during the month under consideration.