The growth of eight core industries dropped to 2.1 per cent in July, mainly due to a contraction in coal, crude oil and natural gas production, according to government data released on September 2.

The eight core sector industries - coal, crude oil, natural gas, refinery products, fertiliser, steel, cement and electricity - had expanded by 7.3 per cent in July last year.

These core industries comprise 40.27 per cent of the weight of items included in the Index of Industrial Production (IIP).

The output of coal, crude oil, natural gas and refinery products recorded negative growth during the month under review.

Similarly, growth rate in production of steel, cement and electricity declined to 6.6 per cent, 7.9 per cent and 4.2 per cent, respectively, as against 6.9 per cent, 11.2 per cent and 6.7 per cent in July 2018.

However, fertiliser output marginally grew by 1.5 per cent in July as against 1.3 per cent in July 2018.

For the April-July period, the growth rate of these eight sectors almost halved to 3 per cent as compared to 5.9 per cent in the same period last year.

The growth rate of these eight sectors have been declining since April this year. It slowed down to 5.2 per cent in April from 5.8 per cent. Then it came down to 4.3 per cent in May and 0.7 per cent in June.

The GDP data too has shown a deceleration, with the growth rate coming down to a six-year low of 5 per cent in the first quarter of the current fiscal, mainly on account of a sharp dip in the manufacturing sector, which registered almost a flat growth of 0.6 per cent.

Having lost the tag of the world’s fastest-growing economy earlier this year, India’s GDP growth was behind China’s 6.2 per cent in April-June, its weakest pace in at least 27 years.

Major automobile manufacturers, including Maruti Suzuki, Hyundai, Mahindra & Mahindra, Tata Motors and Honda have reported a high double-digit decline in their sales in August as the Indian auto sector continued to reel under one of the worst slowdowns in its history.