(LiveMint)
India’s GDP growth decelerated to a more than five-year low at 5% in the June quarter of 2019-20, against 5.8% in the March quarter. This is way below analysts’ expectations of economic growth at 5.7% in the June quarter. This is likely to increase demand for a stimulus package from the government and indicates that the pain for the economy is not over yet.
Manufacturing growth almost collapses at 0.6% in the June quarter, against 3.1% in the March quarter, in a sign of the dismal state of the industrial sector of the economy. Among services sectors, only trade, hotels, communication segment have grown faster in the June quarter at 7.1%, compared with the March-quarter growth of 6%. Both financial services (5.9%) and public administration services (8.5%) decelerated in the June quarter. The only sector that registered a robust pick-up is electricity, growing at 8.6% in the June quarter, from 4.3% in the preceding quarter.
