Lockdown effect: India’s April Core sector output contracts 38%, GDP growth slows to 3.1%
New Delhi : The nationwide lockdown has severely impacted the Industrial output of the country as the growth rate of Eight core Industries for April has declined by 38 per cent, government data shows.
“The growth rate of Index of Eight Core Industries for April 2020 declined by 38.1% (provisional) compared to a decline of 9 per cent (provisional) previous month of March 2020.In view of nationwide lockdown during April 2020 due to COVID-19 pandemic, various industries viz. Coal, Cement, Steel, Natural Gas, Refinery, Crude Oil etc experienced a substantial loss of production” said the data released by the Department for Promotion of Industry and Internal Trade, Ministry of Commerce.
The final growth rate of Index of Eight Core Industries for January’2020 remains unchanged at 2.2%.The Eight Core Industries comprise 40.27 per cent of the weight of items included in the Index of Industrial Production (IIP).
Meanwhile, India’s gross domestic product (GDP) grew 3.1 percent during the fourth quarter of 2019-20 financial year against 5.8 per cent in the Q4 of FY19.
The summary of the Index of Eight Core Industries is given below :
Coal– Coal production (weight: 10.33per cent) declined by 15.5 per cent in April, 2020 over April, 2019.
Crude Oil-Crude Oil production (weight: 8.98per cent) declined by 6.4 per cent in April, 2020 over April, 2019.
Natural Gas– The Natural Gas production (weight: 6.88per cent) declinedby19.9 per cent in April, 2020 over April,2019.
Refinery Products– Petroleum Refinery production (weight: 28.04per cent) declined by 24.2 per cent in April, 2020 over April, 2019.
Fertilizers-Fertilizers production (weight: 2.63 per cent) declined by 4.5 per cent in April, 2020 over April,2019.
Steel-Steel production (weight: 17.92per cent) declined by 83.9 per cent in April, 2020 over April,2019.
Cement-Cement production (weight: 5.37 per cent) declined by 86.0 per cent in April, 2020over April, 2019.
Electricity– Electricity generation (weight: 19.85per cent) declined by 22.8 per cent in April, 2020over April,2019.