The growth in India’s Gross Domestic Product slowed to 7.1% in the July-September quarter, the Central Statistics Office said on Friday. The GDP had grown by 8.2% in the April-June quarter and 7.7% in the quarter before that.
The GDP at constant 2011-’12 prices in July-September was estimated at Rs 33.98 lakh crore, compared to Rs 31.72 lakh crore in the same quarter the previous year, the data released by the government showed.
The growth between April and June had been the best in two years, showing signs of recovery since the decline to a three-year low of 5.6% in April-June 2017. The decline had come months after the government demonetised high-value currency notes in November 2016. The growth figure was 6.3% in July-September 2017 and 7% in October-December 2017.
The GDP data comes days after the Centre lowered the GDP growth rate numbers for the years when the Congress-led United Progressive Alliance was in power.
In August, the National Statistical Commission had released the back series data – older GDP data revised in line with the new series – which showed India’s economy had grown by over 10% for at least one year when the United Progressive Alliance was in power.
The new data released this month considerably lowers the growth rates for those years. India changed the base year for calculating GDP growth to 2011-’12 after the Narendra Modi government took over.
Core industries grow 4.8%
Meanwhile, data released by the Ministry of Commerce and Industry showed that India’s core sectors grew 4.8% in October compared to the same month last year. The October growth rate was the best in four months. The combined index of eight core industries stood at 134.8.
The index of the eight core sector industries includes coal, crude oil, natural gas, refinery products, fertilisers, steel, cement, and electricity. These industries comprise over 40% of the weight of items included in measuring the index of industrial production.
The cumulative growth rate of the core sector between April and October was 5.4%, the data showed.
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