India’s gross domestic product (GDP) grew at 4.7 per cent in the October-December (third) quarter of fiscal 2019-20), a marginal improvement over the six-year-low of 4.5 per cent in its previous quarter, according to data released by the Central Statistics Office (CSO). Projections for economic growth in this fiscal have been retained at 5 per cent in the second advance estimates. The rate of the country’s economic growth was 6.6 per cent in the same quarter a year earlier. India’s GDP growth in 2018-19 was 6.8 per cent.
The GDP growth rate for the first quarter of 2019-20 was revised to 5.6 per cent, and for the second quarter to 5.1 per cent. During the first nine months of this fiscal (April-December 2019), the Indian economy grew by 5.1 per cent against 6.3 per cent in the same period of 2018-19, according to a report.
The country’s fiscal deficit in the first 10 months of fiscal 2019-20 was rs. 9.85 trillion, 128.5 per cent of the government’s revised full-year target of rs. 7.66 trillion, another set of data released showed. The low rate of expansion in the economy seen in the December quarter was mostly an extension of the weak manufacturing, falling exports and weak consumer demand and private investment witnessed in the previous quarter against the backdrop of a global slowdown. Gross value added growth during the third quarter stood at 4.5 per cent, against 4.3 per cent in July-September quarter this year and 6.3 per cent in the December quarter of 2018-19.
