In another reminder to the economy’s grim situation, the National Statistical Office on Friday, 29 November released the country’s second quarter GDP which stands at 4.5 percent.
The previous low was recorded at 4.3 percent in the January-March period of 2012-13. GDP growth was registered at 7 percent in the corresponding quarter of 2018-19.
The sharpest fall in growth came in the manufacturing sector which recorded a negative growth of 0.1 percent against 6.9 percent growth in the same quarter previous fiscal year.
Agriculture, mining and electricity also witnessed slower rates of growth.
The growth rate has plunged to a 26-quarter low, since the January-March 2013 quarter, when the GDP growth rate came at 4.3 percent.
Core Sector Output Shrinks 5.8% in October
Output of eight core infrastructure industries contracted by 5.8 percent in October, indicating the severity of economic slowdown, according to the government data released on Friday.
As many as six of eight core industries saw a contraction in output in October.
Finance Ministry sources have recently conceded that core sector growth and Index of Industrial Production (IIP) have been extremely poor in two months of the July-September quarter that will have a bearing on the GDP growth.
‘Bankruptcy of Economic Vision,’ Says Congress
Reacting to sharp decline in the GDP numbers, Congress’ Randeep Surjewala while talking to the media said, “This is the bankruptcy of economic vision. The latest GDP numbers show that the ruling BJP has plunged the economy to another low.”
“Nirmala Sitharaman said there’s a slowdown but no recession, Ravi Shankar Prasad talked about movies doing and Piyush Goyal rubbished all claims of economic slump. Do they think the public is so gullible? Every businessman is dealing with a crisis in one way or not. PM Modi said Sab Changa si, I want to to tell him, Sab Manda si.”Randeep Surjewala, Congress leader
Earlier in the day, while Care Ratings, ICRA and Edelweiss expected the economy to have expanded at 4.7 percent in the quarter, DBS and Nomura were on the lower band of the forecasts with projections of 4.3 percent and 4.2 percent, respectively.
New Delhi-based think tank NCAER had projected GDP growth at 4.9 percent for both the second quarter as well as for the full financial year ending 31 March.
(With inputs from PTI, ANI)
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