The terms industry and sector mean different things in terms of economic activity. Industry refers to a specific activity or groups of activities that are done within an industry, like retail or manufacturing or pharmaceuticals, whereas Sector refers to a grouping of industries that have certain similar characteristics, like the Energy Sector which could include the coal, natural gas, oil, wind, solar and other industries that are all generating energy or energy related products that are used by other sectors of the economy.
Broadly, following sectors make up the economy of a country:
- Consumer Discretionary – this consists of products and services that a consumer may decide to buy or not buy depending on their income and discretionary spending money they have, hence the term discretionary. Thus, it includes industries like travel and tourism, news and media, fashion, cosmetics, automobiles, leisure activities, products and services etc.
- Consumer Staples – this consists of products and services that a consumer needs to buy, irrespective of economic situation and monetary capability, like food, household cleaning and other products, personal products etc.
- Energy – this consists of energy related industries, as noted above in the introduction.
- Financials – this consists of banking and other financial industries that primarily deal in money like retail and commercial banking, consumer finance, insurance, capital markets, personal finance and investments etc.
- Healthcare – this consists of industries dealing with healthcare and health related products and services, like pharmaceuticals and biotechnology companies, healthcare providers like hospitals, doctors, healthcare equipment and supplies etc.
- Industrials – this consists of companies in the manufacturing, transportation and logistics, road and rail networks, airlines and air services, construction, engineering etc.
- Information Technology – this consists of computers and electronic equipment including cell phones, semiconductor industries, software development and services, IT services, computer peripherals etc.
- Materials – this consists of metals and mining, chemicals and chemical products, construction materials, paper, forest and other natural products, etc.
- Real Estate – this consists of real estate related industries, residential and commercial real estate management and development, equity real estate investment trusts (REITs) which are a special type of real estate investment entities, etc.
- Telecommunication Services – this consists of all kinds of telecommunications, wireless and wired, and other telecommunication related services like internet connectivity, etc.
- Utilities – this consists of basic utilities like gas, power, renewables, water, waste collection and processing, etc.
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