The Indian Economy is showing signs of a slow down as the core sector growth data was released today for the month of September 2011. The Industrial sector has been hit by the rising input costs and high interest rates. The Key eight infrastructure sectors slowed down to 2.3% in September as compared to 3.3% in September 2010 and 3.7% in the month of August 2011.

The Eight core industries have a combined weight of 37.9% in the IIP (Index of Industrial Production).

The Cumulative growth of the core sector during April-September 2011 has been recorded at 4.9% as compared to 5.6% in the corresponding period last year.

Coal was the worst performer registering production decline of 17.8% in September'11 as compared to a decline of 1.8% in September'10. Heavy rains in the coal mining areas and strike at Coal India were cited as the main reasons for decline in production.Coal has a weight of 4.38% in the IIP.

Natural Gas also registered a decline of 6.4% compared to its growth at 12.6% in the month of September 2010. The Cumulative figures are even more disappointing - the production has declined by 8.5% as compared to a growth of 25.2% in the period of April-Sept 2010

Fertilizer production declined by 1.2% in the month. Crude Oil registered a growth of 0.1%, petroleum refinery production had a growth of 4.4%. Cement sector was also unimpressive with a growth of 0.9%

Electricity sector registered a decent growth of 9.8%, though it was lower than the 9.4% growth in the month of August 2011.

Similarly, Steel witnessed a growth of 6.6%, which was lower than 8.0% growth registered in the month of August.

The Industrial sector is now witnessing a slowdown, as the economy is facing pressures from the higher inflation and rising cost of borrowing. The RBI has been maintaining a tight monetary policy to contain the sticky inflation, which has now started effecting growth.