FCC

India's Infrastructure Output Slows to 8.1 per cent Growth

2023-11-01

India's infrastructure output showed an 8.1 per cent year-on-year increase in September, according to government data. However, this growth rate represented a four-month low, and the expansion in most sectors decelerated. The term "infrastructure output" encompasses eight key sectors, including coal and electricity, contributing to almost 40 per cent of the country's industrial output.

Despite the overall slowdown, some sectors displayed robust performance during September. Electricity generation recorded a notable 9.3 per cent growth, while coal production surged by 16.1 per cent. The steel sector expanded by 9.6 per cent, demonstrating significant progress. Additionally, cement output increased by 4.7 per cent. However, there was a slight decline of 0.4 per cent in crude oil production during the same period.

Economists, such as Aditi Nayar from ICRA, have attributed the dampened growth to a pickup in rainfall, which hurt the core sector's expansion in September. She further predicted that the Index of Industrial Production, which measures industrial output growth, is likely to moderate to high single digits in September 2023, following the trajectory of the core sector.

For the first six months of the financial year that began on April 1, infrastructure output demonstrated a year-on-year growth of 7.8 per cent, according to the data.