NEW DELHI: India’s economy grew at a slower pace in 2018-19 than earlier thought. The Central Statistical Organisation revised its GDP growth forecast for FY19 to 6.1% against 6.8% estimated earlier.
The revised estimates implies growth in FY20 will go up as the base for calculations will become narrower, said Prof Biswajit Dhar of Jawaharlal Nehru University.
GDP grew 4.75% in the first half of FY20 and is expected to grow by 5.25% in the second half.
However, there were doubts about this projection. Now that last year’s growth rate has been cut, that may be possible now.
“On the flip side, lower GDP growth in 2018-19 will mean we will need to grow at a faster rate in years to come to meet the target of $ 5 trillion by 2024,” Dhar warned.
Meanwhile, the growth of eight core industries recovered to 1.3% in December 2019 after remaining in the negative zone for four months, latest data released on Friday showed.
The growth was, however, lower than 2.1% recorded in December 2018.