The Indian economy slowed down further between April-June, the first quarter of this financial year, government data showed and the GDP contracted by 23.9% from the 3.1% in Q4 of 2019-20.
This is the worst India’s GDP has been in decades.
CNBC TV18 put the growth at -23.9%
Earlier a Reuters poll had predicted that India’s already slow economy would shrink by at least 18.3% in Q1 and there was no hope of recovery in till 2021.
The GDP growth was 3.1% in Q4 of 2019-20 from January to March. The shutdown across India because of the coronavirus pandemic contributed to the further slowdown of the economy.
GDP growth in financial year 2019-20 was at 4.2%.
The Reuters report had pointed out how India had already set aside $266 billion of economic rescue spending and the Reserve Bank of India had slashed interest rates by 115 basis points since March, suggesting more was required to shield the economy from the pandemic-induced disruptions.
The same economists predict a contraction of 8.1% and 1.0% in the September and December quarters respectively, which would dash any hopes of an economic recovery this year.
Last week, the RBI’s annual report had cited the International Monetary Fund (IMF) and OECD’s forecasts of a 3.7% contraction and 7.3% decline for the fiscal to March 2021 respectively.