GDP growth hits slow lane in Q3

New Delhi: India's economic growth slipped to a 5-quarter low of 6.6 per cent in October-December period of 2018-19, mainly due to poor performance of farm, mining and manufacturing sectors, official data showed on Thursday.However, India retained the tag of the fastest growing major economy as China posted a GDP growth of 6.4 per cent in the quarter ended December 2018. 

India's Gross Domestic Product (GDP) at constant prices (2011-12) had grown at 7.7 per cent in the October-December quarter of the previous financial year. The Central Statistics Office (CSO), which released the national account data for the third quarter, also revised downwards the growth estimate for the full fiscal (2018-19) to 7 per cent from 7.2 per cent. 

"GDP at Constant Prices in Q3 of 2018-19 is estimated at Rs 35 lakh crore, as against Rs 32.85 lakh crore in Q3 of 2017-18, showing a growth rate of 6.6 per cent," it said. The CSO also revised the GDP growth figures for April-June and July-September quarters of this fiscal to 8 per cent and 7 per cent from 8.2 per cent and 7.1 per cent, respectively. The GDP growth rates for April-June and July-September of the last fiscal were also revised to 6 per cent and 6.8 per cent from 5.6 per cent and 6.3 per cent, respectively. 

During the third quarter of this fiscal, the gross value added (GVA) of the farm sector grew at 2.7 per cent compared to 4.6 per cent a year ago. Similarly, mining and quarrying growth slipped to 1.3 per cent from 4.5 per cent.  The manufacturing sector also grew at a lower rate of 6.7 per cent in the third quarter compared to 8.6 per cent earlier. In its second advance estimates for this fiscal, the CSO said farm sector GVA will grow at 2.7 per cent in 2018-19 compared to 5 per cent a year ago. 

Mining and quarrying growth for the full fiscal has been estimated at 1.2 per cent as against 5.1 per cent in 2017-18. However, it estimated that manufacturing growth would be higher at 8.1 per cent compared to 5.9 per cent in the previous financial year. Meanwhile, the per capita income in real terms (at 2011-12 prices) during 2018-19 is likely to grow to Rs 92,718 as compared to Rs 87,623 for 2017-18. The growth rate in per capita income is estimated at 5.8 percent during 2018-19, as against 5.7 per cent in the previous year. 

The Gross Fixed Capital Formation (GFCF), an indicator of investment, at current prices is estimated at Rs 55.02 lakh crore in 2018-19 as against Rs 48.97 lakh crore in 2017-18. At constant prices (2011-12), the GFCF is estimated at Rs 45.50 lakh crore in 2018-19 as against Rs 41.37 lakh crore in 2017-18. 

In terms of GDP, the rates of GFCF at current and constant prices during 2018-19 are estimated at 28.9 per cent and 32.3 per cent, as against 28.6 per cent and 31.4 per cent in 2017-18. The GFCF is expected to register a growth of 12.4 per cent at current prices and 10 per cent at constant prices during 2018-19.