NEW DELHI: India’s combined index of Eight Core Industries (ICI) increased by 0.7 per cent (provisional) in May 2025 as compared to the Index in May, 2024, data released by the Ministry of Commerce & Industry showed on Friday. This marks the slowest growth in nine months, following a tepid 1 per cent increase in April and 4.5 per cent in March.
The ICI measures the combined and individual performance of production of eight core industries viz. Coal, Crude Oil, Natural Gas, Refinery Products, Fertilizers, Steel, Cement and Electricity. The Eight Core Industries comprise 40.27 per cent of the weight of items included in the Index of Industrial Production (IIP).
The subdued performance, per the data released by the Ministry of Commerce & Industry, was largely due to a sharp contraction in electricity generation, which fell 5.8 per cent, and continued weakness in fertiliser (-5.9 per cent) and natural gas (-3.6 per cent) output. Crude Oil production also declined by 1.8 per cent in May 2025 over May 2024.
Meanwhile, cement and steel production posted growth of 9.2 per cent and 6.7 per cent respectively. Coal production went up by 2.8 per cent while refinery products output went up by 1.1 per cent, the data showed.
Rahul Agrawal, Senior Economist, ICRA, said, “Excess rains in the latter part of May 2025, owing to the early onset of the monsoon, likely weighed on the performance of the electricity and some of the mining sectors in the month. However, the YoY performance of the steel, cement, refinery products and crude oil sectors improved in May 2025 vis-à-vis April 2025, partly offsetting the deterioration in the performance of the other sectors.”
Sankar Chakraborti, MD & CEO, Acuité Ratings & Research Limited, said, “The core sector growth at the start of this fiscal has been significantly bogged down to 0.8 per cent for April-May 2025 compared to 6.9 per cent in the same period last year. The broad-based weakness in five out of eight sectors also signals the need to closely watch for a spillover into overall IIP and GDP growth.”
Looking ahead, he added, the monsoon trajectory and transmission of past rate cuts could offer some support to production and demand conditions.
The next release for June 2025 is scheduled for July 21, the ministry said.
Source: The Financial Express
