Accounting for more than one-fourth of the total weight of Index of Industrial Production, these industries had recorded a 6.6 per cent growth in the first half of the current financial year. October saw a significant growth rate of 8.9 per cent over the same period last year for the core industries, according to an official release here today.

High growth was led by petroleum refinery products posting a growth rate of 19.2 per cent during April-October followed by cement growing at 17.5 per cent, steel 11.7 per cent, power 7.9 per cent and crude petroleum at 0.8%. The coal sector's performance posted negative growth rate of 2.2%.