The Indian economy grew at a slower pace of 4.7 percent during the third quarter of 2019-20, showed data released by the National Statistical Office (NSO) on Friday. The GDP growth for the December quarter is in line with the estimate given by economists polled by news agency Reuters.
While it initially seemed that GDP growth during the December quarter improved marginally by 0.2 percent compared to growth in the second quarter of 2019-20 at 4.5 percent, the GDP growth for the first and second quarters of 2019-20 has been revised by the government.
The GDP growth rate for the first quarter of 2019-20 has been revised to 5.6 percent, and for the second quarter to 5.1 percent
Therefore, the GDP growth for the third quarter at 4.7 percent is actually a slip rather than an improvement.
There have been several other revisions apart from Q1 and Q2 GDP growth. The NSO has made a fresh revision in estimates after a change in the national income data for FY19, reported BloombergQuint.
India's economic growth for the current fiscal has been pegged at 5 percent - the lowest in 11 years - and a recovery is expected only in FY21 when the economy is expected to grow at 6-6.5 percent.
However, many economists have disagreed with the growth figure pegged by Economic Survey 2020 as there are many issues that have the potential to negatively impact growth.
To add to India's woes, economists are now predicting a much greater economic loss due to the impact of the fast-spreading coronavirus (Covid-19), which has claimed over 2,800 deaths globally; the number of infections stands at over 83,000. Indian markets have been stung hard as the virus continues to spread to other regions. Analysts had earlier predicted it to be contained in China, but the situation has drastically changed over the past few days as the virus has now spread to a total of 57 countries.
While the impact of coronavirus on global markets has worried economists around the globe, no one is sure about how much damage it could cause to the global economy.
On the domestic front, there is some good news for India. The eight core industries have recorded better growth in January 2020 at 2.2 percent. The infrastructure sectors had expanded by 1.5 percent in January 2019.
However, analysts said the country's growth trajectory going forward will depend on a lot of factors including the impact of coronavirus on trade and other factors like inflation and demand.
(Update: An earlier version of this story said the Q3 GDP growth improved by 0.2 percent. However, with the government revising quarter 2 GDP growth to 5.1 percent, the GDP growth in Q3 at 4.7 percent is actually a decline.)
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