India's GDP growth plunges to 6-year low of 5 per cent, below China's

India's growth stood at 5.8 per cent in January-March of 2019; government's chief economic adviser blames domestic and global factors for the slowdown

New Delhi: India's economic growth on Friday slumped for the fifth straight quarter to an over six-year low of 5 per cent in the three months ended June as consumer demand and private investment slowed amid deteriorating global environment. Having lost the tag of the world's fastest-growing economy earlier this year, India's GDP growth was behind China's 6.2 per cent in April-June.

The Gross Domestic Product (GDP) of India, Asia's third-largest economy, slumped by over expected 5 per cent in April-June, the slowest pace since January-March 2013. India's economic growth stood at 8 per cent in the same quarter of 2018-19. The growth stood at 5.8 per cent in January-March of 2019.

The slowdown was largely due to a sharp dip in the manufacturing and agriculture sectors, said the Ministry of Statistics and Programme Implementation in a statement. The manufacturing sector grew by 0.6 per cent as compared to a growth of 12.1 per cent in Q1 2018-19. Agriculture, forestry and fishing sector grew by 2 per cent as compared to growth of 5.1 per cent in Q1 2018-19.

The government's Chief Economic Adviser K V Subramanian said GDP numbers indicate that growth, while still high, has shown some slowdown. "Similar phenomenon has been observed previously in the last quarter of 2013-14," he said. "This has been on account of both exogenous and endogenous factors. The Centre is quite alive to the situation especially global headwinds arising out of Sino-American trade conflict which has contributed to the slowdown," he noted. He said the government has been taking all necessary steps in short term and medium term to take care of the situation.

8%
Economic growth in same quarter of 2018

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