India's September infrastructure output grows 2% on year

FILE PHOTO: An employee prepares to move a heavy bar of steel inside the ArcVac ForgeCast factory, in Hooghly district · Reuters

NEW DELHI (Reuters) -India's infrastructure output grew 2% year-on-year in September, backed by strong cement and refined product output, government data showed on Wednesday.

Infrastructure output, which makes up 40% of India's industrial production and tracks activity across eight sectors, had contracted for the first time in more than three years in August at a revised 1.6%.

Last month, coal production increased 2.6% compared to an 8.1% fall in August, while electricity generation fell 0.5% from a revised 3.7% drop in the previous month.

Steel production grew 1.5%, against a revised 3.9% increase a month earlier. Cement output rose 7.1% year-on-year, compared with August's 3% fall, and fertiliser production increased 1.9%, against a 3.2% rise in the previous month.

Output of refinery products rose 5.8% compared with a decline of 1% in August.

Crude oil production fell 3.9% compared with a 3.4% decline in August. Natural gas output decreased 1.3% compared to a 3.6% decline a month ago.

(Reporting by Shivangi Acharya and Sarita Chaganti Singh; Editing by Eileen Soreng)