Growth in activity in the eight core sectors of the economy quickened marginally to 1.7% in April 2026, up from 1.2% in the previous month, official data released on Wednesday (May 20, 2026) showed.

Notably, the data on the Index of Eight Core Industries released by the Ministry of Commerce and Industry also saw a significant revision of the growth rate for March 2026 — now coming in at 1.2% compared to the preliminary contraction of 0.4% that had originally been reported for the month. 

The domestic crude oil sector contracted 3.9% in April 2026, marking the eighth consecutive month of contraction for the sector. The natural gas sector, too, again slumped into a contraction of 4.3% in April after having briefly come back into positive territory in March due to the energy crisis brought on by the war in West Asia. 

Prior to March, the natural gas sector had contracted for 20 consecutive months. 

As a likely consequence of this contraction in domestic natural gas production and rising prices of gas imports, the fertiliser sector contracted 8.6% in April 2026. This was albeit a much better performance than the contraction of nearly 25% in March. 

The refinery products also fell back into a contraction in April 2026, of 0.5%, compared to a growth of 0.1% in March. Notably, the contraction in April 2026 is over a contraction of 4.5% in April of last year. 

In a signal that construction activity might again be picking up, the steel and cement sectors saw relatively robust growth in April 2026. The steel sector saw growth come in at 6.2% in April 2026, as compared to a newly revised growth of 7.7% in March. The preliminary March growth figure for the sector was 2.2%. 

Similarly, the cement sector saw growth quicken to a three-month high of 9.4% in April 2026. Here, too, the growth rate for March was revised upwards to 4.7% from the original 4%. 

The electricity sector grew at a three-month high of 4.1% in April 2026, up from the revised growth of 0.8% in March. The preliminary figure for March had reported a contraction of 0.5% for the sector. 

Coal output contracted 8.7% in April 2026, the second consecutive month of contraction.