New Delhi, Mar 29 (IANS): Growth in eight core industries, including electricity, coal, cement, steel and crude oil, rose by 6.8 percent in February against 0.5 percent in the previous month, raising hopes of a revival in the overall factory output, official data showed Thursday.

The cumulative growth of eight core industries, which have a combined weight of 37.9 percent in the Index of Industrial Production (IIP), fell by 4.4 percent in April-February period of the current financial year as compared to 5.8 percent in the corresponding period of previous year.

The eight core industries had registered a growth of 6.4 percent in February 2011.

According to data released by the ministry of commerce and industry, there was a sharp increase in output of coal, cement and electricity during the month under review.

Coal production surged by 17.8 percent in February after registering a growth of 7.5 percent in the previous month. In fact, coal production had declined for the most part of the year.

In cumulative terms coal production has a growth of 0.4 percent during April-February 2011-12 compared to its growth at (-) 0.1 percent during the same period of the previous year.

Electricity production grew by 8 percent in February as compared to 2.4 percent in January.

In fact, electricity sector has been the key driver of factory output this year. Cumulative growth in electricity generation was 8.6 percent during April-February 2011-12 as against 5.4 percent growth registered during the corresponding period of last year.

Cement production grew by 10.8 percent in February 2012 as against its 6.5 percent registered in the same month last year.

Steel output grew by 4.3 percent, fertiliser production increased by 4.1 percent, petroleum refinery production registered a growth of 6.2 percent and crude oil production grew by 0.4 percent in February.

However, the output of natural gas declined by 7.6 percent in the month under review.