The output of India’s eight core sectors shrank 2.5 per cent in October, contracting for the eighth consecutive month, showed government data. The contraction in October is higher than the figure recorded in September 2020, show data released by the government.
The industrial output in the month of September was revised upwards from (-) 0.1 per cent to -(0.8) per cent, show data released by the Office of Economic Adviser, Department for Promotion of Industry and Internal Trade (DPIIT) on Friday.
As per the data, the infrastructure output, which comprises coal, crude oil and electricity and accounts for nearly 40 per cent of industrial output, contracted 13 per cent in the seven months through October.
"The combined Index of Eight Core Industries stood at 124.2 in October 2020, which declined by 2.5 (provisional) per cent as compared to the Index of October, 2019. Its cumulative growth from April to October, 2020-21 has been (-) 13 per cent," the government said.
It is worth mentioning that industrial production in key sectors has been in negative territory in for the last eight months, barring some sequential improvement in September.
Meanwhile, the second quarter GDP data released today confirmed that India is in a technical recession. The GDP during the July-September period contracted 7.5 per cent on a year-on-year basis.
Despite the contraction, the GDP has improved from the disastrous 23.9 per cent contraction in the first quarter of the year on account of the economic slowdown caused by the pandemic.