Finance Ministry report says economic growth appears to have slowed down in FY19

According to a Finance Ministry report, India’s economy appears to have slowed down in the fiscal year 2018-19 (FY19).

“The Indian economy is the fastest-growing major economy and is projected to grow faster in the coming years. However, India’s economy appears to have slowed down slightly in 2018-19,” the report states.

Some reasons for the slowdown, as mentioned by the report, titled ‘Monthly Economic Report’ for March 2019, are, a declining growth of private consumption, weak increase in fixed investment and muted exports.

“On the supply side, the challenge is to reverse the slowdown in growth of the agriculture sector and sustain the growth in industry,” the report states further.

Also read: India’s April unemployment rate highest since October 2016, rises to 7.6%

According to official data, as quoted by Business Standard, due to subdued expansion in agriculture, manufacturing and government expenditure, the GDP (gross domestic product) grew at a six-quarter low 6.6 per cent in third quarter of FY 19.

Also, the estimate of economic growth for Q1 and Q2 of FY 19 has also been lowered by the government to 8 per cent and 7 per cent respectively. The earlier estimate was 8.2 per cent and 7.1 per cent respectively.

Also, because of lacklustre growth in farm, mining and some services such trade, hotels and transport, the forecast for the full year’s growth has also been revised downwards at 7 per cent in FY19, the lowest in the Modi government tenure.

Credit: Business Standard