New Delhi: Growth of eight core industries dropped to 2.1% in July, mainly due to contraction in coal, crude oil and natural gas production, according to government data released on Monday.The eight core sector industries — coal, crude oil, natural gas, refinery products, fertiliser, steel, cement and electricity — had expanded by 7.3% in July last year.These core industries comprise 40.27% of the weight of items included in the Index of Industrial Production (IIP).Output of coal, crude oil, natural gas and refinery products recorded negative growth during the month under review.Also read: For India Inc’s Sob Story, Sitharaman Has a Sop Story. But Will It Help?Similarly, growth rate in production of steel, cement and electricity declined to 6.6%, 7.9% and 4.2%, respectively, as against 6.9%, 11.2% and 6.7%.However, fertiliser output marginally grew by 1.5% in July as against 1.3% in July 2018.For April-July period, the eight sectors growth rate almost halved to 3% as compared to 5.9% in the same period last year.The growth rate of these eight sectors are declining since April this year. It slowed down to 5.2% in April from 5.8%. Then it came down to 4.3% in May and 0.7% in June.The GDP data too has shown deceleration with the growth rate coming down to over six year low of 5% in the first quarter of the current fiscal, mainly on account of sharp dip in manufacturing sector, which registered almost a flat growth of 0.6%.