In signs of the Indian economy losing steam ahead of the general elections, GDP growth slowed to a five-quarter low of 6.6 per cent in October-December on the back of the lower farm and manufacturing growth and weaker consumer demand, government data showed Thursday.
Also, economic growth estimate for the current fiscal year ending March 31 has been revised downwards to 7 per cent from the earlier estimate of 7.2 per cent. This is the lowest growth in the last five years.
However, the third quarter growth rate, which was lower than the revised estimate of 7 per cent in the previous quarter and 8 per cent in April-June, was faster than China’s 6.4 per cent growth for the three months to December 2018.
India thus retains its tag of the world’s fastest-growing major economy.
Data from the Central Statistics Office (CSO) showed slower consumer spending at 8.4 per cent as compared to 9.9 per cent in the previous quarter. Farm sector growth slowed to 2.7 per cent from 4.2 per cent in Q2 and 4.6 per cent in Q1.
To discuss this issue, CNBC-TV18’s Latha Venkatesh spoke with Dr Pronab Sen, economist & former chairman of the Statistics Commission and A Prasanna, chief economist at ICICI Securities Primary Dealer.