GDP growth dips to 7-yr low of 4.7%

■ Q2 growth revised to 5.1%

The current economic slowdown is “temporary” and caused by external turbulence, and the country has reasons to be more optimistic for the next decade, richest Indian Mukesh Ambani said on Friday.

The chairman and managing director of Reliance Industries said the coming decade presents a “historic opportunity” for businesses to excel and place India among the top three economies of the world.

The commerce ministry's dumping probe arm DGTR has recommended antidumping duty on aluminium and zinc coated flat products from China, Vietnam and Korea to guard domestic players from cheap imports, according to a notification. The Directorate General of Trade Remedies has recommended duty in the range of $14.3-173.1 per tonne on the imports. The directorate’s probe concluded dumping of such flat products.

Expanding at a marginal pace, India’s economic growth slipped to a near seven-year low of 4.7 per cent during the OctoberDecember 2019 quarter. The key reason for the slow pace of India’s gross domestic product (GDP) growth is a massive contraction in manufacturing sector output.

The numbers released by the government on Friday were broadly in line with analysts expectations. The GDP growth for the December quarter is the lowest since JanuaryMarch of 2012-13, when it stood at 4.3 per cent.

The 4.7 per cent expansion in the third quarter of the current financial year compares with a revised 5.1 per cent growth witnessed in the previous three months and 5.6 per cent expansion in the same period of the previous year.

The government retained its estimate of 5 per cent GDP growth for the current fiscal. This, after the first quarter growth was revised upwards to 5.6 per cent from earlier estimate of 5 per cent.

While agriculture output rose 3.5 per cent versus 3.1 per cent in the previous quarter, mining grew 3.2 per cent versus 0.2 per cent in the July-September period. Manufacturing output declined 0.2 per cent while electricity growth fell 0.7 per cent compared with a 3.9 per cent growth earlier. The only bright spot in the third quarter of 2019-20 fiscal was minor improvement in private final consumption expenditure, which grew 5.9 per cent

The government numbers came in on a day the Sensex tanked over 1,400 points and the rupee plunged by 60 paise against the US dollar.

Besides, India’s fiscal deficit also touched 128.5 per cent of the whole year budget target at Januaryend, while the deficit during the same period during 2018-19 was 121.5 per cent of that year’s revised budget estimate.

Reacting to the GDP numbers, finance minister Nirmala Sitharaman said that it’s more important that the economy is moving ahead amid the ongoing global slowdown. “It’s encouraging that the ship is moving ahead. I am glad the GDP numbers indicate there is some steadying in the economy,” she said.

Economic affairs scretary Atanu Chakraborty said the decline in the economic growth has bottomed out. “The growth in the core sector industries too has witnessed growth during the December and January, which augurs well for the manufacturing sector during the JanuaryMarch quarter of the fiscal,” Chakraborty said.