India’s Gross Domestic Product, or GDP growth rate rose to 6.3% for the second quarter of the 2017-’18 financial year, government data showed on Thursday. The economy’s growth rate picked up after falling for five consecutive quarters.
The GDP at 2011-’12 prices was estimated at Rs 31.66 lakh crore for the July-September 2017 quarter as against Rs 29.79 lakh crore for the same quarter in 2016.
Sector that registered growth of over 6% for the July-September quarter were manufacturing, electricity, gas, water supply and other utility services, trade, hotels, transport, communication and services related to broadcasting, the data showed. In contrast, the agriculture sector grew by 1.7%.
GDP growth had reduced to 5.7% for the July-September quarter. A Reuters poll of analysts had said that India’s GDP is likely to have grown 6.4% from the July-September quarter in 2016, a prediction that matched a survey of 46 economists by Bloomberg.
India’s benchmark indices had fallen sharply ahead of the release of growth estimates data on Thursday. The BSE Sensex fell 453.41 points (1.35%), while the NSE Nifty declined 134.75 points (1.30%) due to cautious market sentiment.
The World Bank has forecast that India’s GDP growth will slow down to 7% in 2017 from 8.6% in 2015 because of disruptions caused by demonetisation of high-value currency in November 2016 and the impact of the Goods and Services Tax.
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