Growth in core sectors - such as coal, fuel and power - stood at 2.1 per cent in July, government data showed on Monday. That marked a sharp downturn from a reading of 7.3 per cent in the corresponding period a year ago. Measured by the Index of Eight Core Industries, core sector activity has a weightage of about 40 per cent in the Index of Industrial Production (IIP), which gauges factory production. During April-July, the output of the core sectors rose 3 per cent from the year-ago period, according to the data.

The Index of Eight Core Industries takes into account the production in the sectors of coal, crude oil, natural gas, refinery products, fertilizers, steel, cement and electricity.

According to the data released by the government on Monday, the output of coal, crude oil, natural gas and refinery products registered negative growth - or contraction - in July.

Industrial production - measured by the estimate of Index of Industrial Production (IIP) - slowed down to 2 per cent in June compared with an expansion of 7 per cent in the corresponding month last year, data released by the Ministry of Statistics & Programme Implementation showed.

The government is due to release the industrial production or factory output numbers for the month of July this month later this month.

The core sector production data comes days after separate official data showed the country's GDP or gross domestic product grew 5 per cent in the first quarter of current financial year (2019-20), marking its slowest pace recorded since March 2013

A slowdown in sales of cars to biscuits and lakhs of estimated job cuts across sectors plagued the economic growth of the country, say analysts.