(LiveMint)
India’s economic growth bounced back from a three-year low, giving the central bank enough ammunition to keep interest rates on hold 6 December amid an uptick in inflationary pressures.
Gross domestic product in Asia’s third-largest economy expanded 6.3% in July to September from a year earlier, the statistics ministry said in a statement in New Delhi on Thursday. That’s slower than the 6.4% median estimate in a Bloomberg survey of 51 economists but faster than 5.7% in the previous quarter. Gross value added, a key input of GDP tracked by the central bank, rose 6.1% compared with an estimated 6.2% gain.
It comes as good news for Prime Minister Narendra Modi who is facing elections in his home state of Gujarat on 18 December. He has been grappling with slowing growth in the past five quarters, with the economy dragged down by subdued private investments, an unprecedented cash ban imposed last year and the introduction of a country-wide consumption tax in July.
