The infrastructure sector contracted a record 38.1 per cent in April because of the coronavirus-induced lockdown, according to official data.

The eight core sectors had expanded 5.2 per cent in April 2019 and shrank 9 per cent in March 2020, data released by the commerce and industry ministry on Friday said.

“In view of the nationwide lockdown during April 2020 because of the Covid-19 pandemic, various industries such as coal, cement, steel, natural gas, refinery and crude oil experienced a substantial loss of production,” the official release said.

The core sector forms 40.27 per cent of the index of industrial production.

“While an across-the-board negative number was also expected, the fall of 22.8 per cent in electricity is a reflection of the sharp decline in industrial production as the household consumption was higher than normal. Yet due to the lockdown, demand had fallen from both industry and commercial establishments, which gets reflected here. Also, the fact that labour was in transit camps meant activity in mining got affected,” according to Madan Sabnavis, chief economist of Care Ratings.

“Lower imports of crude meant that refinery products were affected. Cement and steel had both fallen over 80 per cent each during the shutdown across the country. The lowest decline in production was in fertilisers as production was on to a limited extent given the demand for the sowing of the next crop,” Sabnavis said.

“This picture would be replicated in May too though not to this extent. IIP growth would be in a similar range most probably given the high weight of these industries in the index,” he added.

Refinery production declined 24 per cent in April from a year ago period. Its cumulative index increased 0.2 per cent during April to March, 2019-20, over the corresponding period of the previous year.

Steel production declined a massive 83 per cent from a year ago, while electricity generation saw a decline of 22.8 per cent in the same period.

Coal production registered a decline of 15.5 per cent from April 2019, while crude production slipped 6.4 per cent. Cement production reported a massive 86 per cent fall from last year in the month of April.

“Based on the available trends, we anticipate a contraction of 75-80 per cent in industrial output in April 2020 (15.8 per cent in March 2020), led by a collapse in manufacturing volumes of non-essential items amid the lockdown, moderate decline in electricity demand and a relatively insulated mining sector,” Aditi Nayar, principal economist of Icra, said.