India's growth in key core sectors slowed to an 8-month low of 0.5% in April, according to data released by the government on Tuesday. This marks a sharp decline from the upwardly revised 4.6% in March 2025.
The eight core sectors consist of coal, crude oil, natural gas, refinery products, fertilisers, steel, cement and electricity. The Commerce and Industry Ministry data shows that three of them contracted during the month, with only two growing faster than the previous month.
"The deceleration was broad-based, led by six of the eight sectors, barring coal and natural gas," says Aditi Nayar, chief economist at Information and Credit Rating Agency (ICRA).
The cement sector grew by 6.7% as compared to 12.2% in March. The steel sector grew by 3% in April, slower than the 9.3% in the previous month. Electricity growth was also slower at 1% compared with 7.5% in the previous month.
The coal sector grew by 3.5% in April, higher than the 1.6% in March, while the natural gas sector grew by 0.4%.
The eight core industries, which largely represent India's infrastructure sector and account for nearly 41% weight in the index of industrial production (IIP), started the year with a subdued performance, experiencing the largest sequential contraction at 11.4% since April 2021.
Experts believe that the sluggish outcome in April will also impact overall IIP outcomes, which is scheduled to be released on May 28.
"Based on the tepid rise in the core sector and the performance of the other available high-frequency indicators, ICRA expects the IIP growth to moderate sharply to 1.0% in April 2025. The healthy growth in non-oil exports may provide an upside, unless the same represented round-tripping of some imports," Nayar adds.
India’s (IIP) grew 3% year-on-year in March 2025. This marked a recovery from the six-month low of 2.9% recorded in February. However, growth remained below the 5.5% expansion reported during the same month last year.
