Growth in the eight core sectors in August slumped to the lowest in four years and four months. That is, the -0.5% registered in August 2019 was the lowest since April 2015. Growth in five out of the eight sectors of the Index of Eight Core Industries fell into the negative zone in August. The index had registered a growth of 2.7% in July 2019 and a robust 4.72% in August 2018. “The contraction is surprising because last month it was about 2.7% or so,” D.K. Srivastava, chief policy adviser at EY India, said. “It is an indication of a continuing slowdown and weak demand in the system. The core sectors reflect demand from the power and infrastructure sectors, where the government’s own demand is important and public sector spending has been low in the last 3-4 months, so that could explain the contraction.”