New Delhi: A government data released on Monday revealed that the growth of eight core industries has dropped to 2.1 per cent in the month of July, against 7.3 per cent growth in the same period of last year. The eight core sector industries include coal, crude oil, natural gas, refinery products, fertiliser, steel, cement and electricity, that had expanded by 7.3 per cent in July last year.

During April to July, the output rose by 3 per cent from the year-ago period, according to data released by the Ministry of Commerce and Industry. "The combined index of eight core industries stood at 131.9 in July 2019 which was 2.1 per cent higher as compared to the index of July 2018," it said.

These core industries comprise 40.27 per cent of the weight of items included in the Index of Industrial Production (IIP). Ouput of coal, crude oil, natural gas and refinery products recorded negative growth during the month under review.

Similarly, growth rate in production of steel, cement and electricity declined to 6.6 per cent, 7.9 per cent and 4.2 per cent, respectively, as against 6.9 per cent, 11.2 per cent and 6.7 per cent.

However, fertiliser output marginally grew by 1.5 per cent in July as against 1.3 per cent in July 2018.

For April-July period, the eight sectors growth rate almost halved to 3 per cent as compared to 5.9 per cent in the same period last year.

The growth rate of these eight sectors are declining since April this year. It slowed down to 5.2 per cent in April from 5.8 per cent. Then it came down to 4.3 per cent in May and 0.7 per cent in June.

The GDP data too has shown deceleration with the growth rate coming down to over six year low of 5 per cent in the first quarter of the current fiscal, mainly on account of sharp dip in manufacturing sector, which registered almost a flat growth of 0.6 per cent.

(With inputs from agencies)