India’s core sector growth slows to 0.5% in May; five of eight industries contract

India’s eight core sectors grew at a slower pace of 0.5% in May 2026, weighed down by contractions in coal, crude oil, natural gas, refinery products and fertiliser output, according to official data released on Monday.

In April 2026, the final growth rate was revised to 1.8% from the provisional estimate released earlier.

Data released by the Commerce and Industry Ministry showed that only steel, cement and electricity recorded positive growth in May this year, helping keep the overall index in the positive zone.

Coal output declined 9.3% year-on-year in May, while crude oil production fell 4.6% and natural gas output dropped 4.9%.

Petroleum refinery products, which have the highest weight of 28.04% in the core sector basket, contracted 8.7% during the month.

Fertiliser production also slipped 0.9%.

Among the sectors that registered growth, steel output rose 5% in May, cement production increased 8.4% and electricity generation grew 8.7% over the year-ago period.

During the first two months of the current fiscal year, April-May 2026-27, the eight core sectors recorded a cumulative growth of 1.1%, the data showed.

In the April-May period, coal output contracted 9.1%, crude oil fell 4.2%, natural gas declined 4.5%, refinery products dropped 4.7% and fertiliser output was down 4.5%.

On the other hand, steel production grew 5.2% in the first two months of the fiscal, cement output rose 8.3% and electricity generation increased 7.1%.

The eight core industries had registered an overall growth of 2.7% in 2025-26.