The growth of eight core industries slowed down to 6.6 per cent in July against 7.6 per cent the previous month. However year-on-year, the figures are much better. The eight core sector — coal, crude oil, natural gas, refinery products, fertilisers, steel, cement and electricity — had registered a growth of 2.9 per cent in July last year.The eight infrastructure sectors of coal, crude oil, natural gas, refinery products, fertilisers, steel, cement and electricity, constitute 40.27 per cent of the total industrial production. The coal sector saw a huge decline to 9.7 per cent from 11.5 per cent a month ago.Crude oil output was minus 5.4 per cent against minus 3.4 per cent in June.The Natural Gas production (weight: 6.88per cent) declined by 5.2 per cent in July.July refinery products at 12.3% vs 12.1% in June. Electricity output also dropped significantly to 4.8 per cent vs 8.4 per cent growth in the previous month.Steel sector saw better output with data showing growth of 6 per cent vs 3.4 per cent in the month of June 2018.The cement sector saw a growth of 10.8 per cent against 13,2 per cent in June.A marginal increase was wittnessed in fertilizer sector that saw growth of 1.3% vs 1% in June.During the April-July period of the current fiscal, these 8 sectors grew by 5.8 per cent as against 2.6 per cent in the year-ago period.