New Delhi : The output of India’s eight major industries continued to expand in September by 5.2 per cent, from a rise of 4.4 per cent during the previous month, official data showed on Tuesday.

Year-on-year there was a marginal fall with the Index of Eight Core Industries (ECI), representing the output of major industrial sectors like coal, steel, cement and electricity, having risen by 5.3 per cent in the corresponding month of the previous year.

“The combined Index of Eight Core Industries stands at 122.5 in September 2017, which was 5.2 per cent higher compared to the index of September 2016,” a Commerce Ministry statement said.

Relecting the impact of demonetisation, however, the core industries’ cumulative growth for the first half of the current fiscal fell to 3.3 per cent as compared to the 5.4 per cent jump in IIP during the same period last year.

“Its cumulative growth during April to September 2017-18 was 3.3 per cent,” the ministry said in the summary of the ECI for first half of the fiscal.

The ECI index carries 40.27 per cent weightage of the Index of Industrial Production (IIP) which is the macro-gauge for India’s factory output.

—IANS