Core sectors grow 8.1%; fiscal deficit at 39% of target

Output of eight core infrastructure sectors, which accounts for two-fifths of India’s industrial output, expanded at a healthy 8.1% in September, official data released on Tuesday showed. However, this was its slowest pace in four months, as seven of the sectors, barring the fertilizer industry, saw slowing output growth.

- Rhik Kundu

In the same month a year earlier, core sector output grew at a revised 8.3%.

Separately, data from the Controller General of Accounts (CGA) showed that the central government’s fiscal deficit during the April-September period stood at ₹7.02 trillion, or 39% of the full-year estimate of ₹17.87 trillion, aided by double-digit growth in tax and non-tax revenue receipts.

While tax revenue receipts in the first half of the current fiscal improved by 16% to about ₹16.2 trillion, non-tax receipts jumped by 50% to ₹2.37 trillion on the back of higher dividend receipts by the Centre.

The fiscal deficit was at ₹6.19 trillion, or 37% of the annual target in the year-ago period.

Commerce ministry data showed that output growth of coal, steel, electricity, natural gas, refinery products, cement and fertilizers grew at a high single digit, although it moderated from 12.5% in August.