Core Infra Sectors Grow by 1.8% in November

India's eight key infrastructure sectors grew at a slower pace of 1.8 per cent in November against 5.8 per cent in the same month last year, amid a dip in production of crude oil, natural gas, refinery products, and electricity, according to official data released on Monday.

The performance of these sectors, however, improved month-on-month, the data showed.

The output of eight core industries -- coal, crude oil, natural gas, petroleum, refinery products, electricity, fertiliser, and steel -- contracted by (-) 0.1 per cent in October this year.

During the April-November period of this fiscal, the output of these sectors grew by 2.4 per cent against 4.4 per cent in the same period last fiscal.

The growth rate of the output of coal, and steel have moderated in November.

However, the fertiliser and cement production grew by 5.6 per cent and 14.5 per cent, respectively.

Aditi Nayar, Chief Economist, ICRA Ltd, said that while core sector growth improved expectedly in November 2025 after the festive season, it remained tepid.

She said that the sequential improvement in growth between October and November was led by a majority of the sectors, with a particularly sharp pickup in cement (to 14.5 per cent from 5.2 per cent).

Given the base effects and shift in the festive calendar, it would be more prudent to assess the average for October and November 2025, which stands at a meagre 0.8 per cent, lower than the average growth of 3 per cent recorded in the first half of this fiscal, she added.

"Based on the core sector growth and other high-frequency indicators, we expect the IIP (index of industrial production) to rise by 3.5-4.5 per cent in November 2025," Nayar said.