New Delhi: The dreaded figures out.
Thanks to the coronavirus-induced nationwide lockdown covering most of the first quarter of financial year 2020-21, India’s Gross Domestic Product (GDP) for April-June (Q1) has slipped by a steep 23.9 per cent.
It’s the worst contraction in the history of the Indian economy.
This is as per provisional estimates released by Ministry of Statistics and Programme Implementation (MoSPI) on Monday. The corresponding figure for Q1 of 2019-20 was a 5.2 per cent increase.
To put things in perspective, in the preceding quarter, that is January-March (Q4) of 2019-20, there was a 3.1 per cent growth in GDP.
Economists and other experts had all predicted a fall in GDP for Q1 of 20-21, but the actual figures are worse than those projected. A Bloomberg study had estimated that the decline will be to the tune of 18 per cent for the quarter ending in June 2021.
A State Bank of India (SBI) report earlier this month had predicted said the country’s GDP to contract by 16.5 per cent during the same period.
During the strict lockdown, only essential services like food items and medicines were allowed as the government tried to curb the spread of the deadly virus in India.
All key sectors except agriculture contracted during March-June 2021. Construction plummeted by a whopping 50.3 per cent and manufacturing sector witnessed a 39.3 per cent fall. Trade, hotels, transport, communication shrunk by 47 per cent.
On the other hand, agriculture, forestry and fishing industry saw a growth of 3.4 per cent during this period.
