Core infra sectors grow by 1.8% in November

New Delhi: 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). PTI