Can you tell me whether the core sector activity improved in July?

Core sector for the month of Jul-20 contracted by -9.6%. However, it must be said that the core sector performance has been showing a consistent improvement since May despite staying in the negative territory. That may be the good news overall.

Core sector is the combination of eight very important infrastructure sectors including coal, crude oil, refining products, natural gas, steel, cement, fertilizers and electricity. These 8 core sectors are critical as they account for 40.27% of the IIP of the economy.

For the month of July 2020, fertilizer production was the only sector that showed positive growth of 3.4%. On the positive side, the core sector de-growth for Jun-20 was revised from -15% to -12.9%. This hints that the subsequent data flows may be positive.

Electricity production has been showing good traction and so has coal. Both are trying to come back to the pre-COVID levels. However, steel and cement are still deeply in negative and they would predicate on the pick-up in construction activity in the economy.