COVID’S BITTER PILL: INDIA’S GDP CONTRACTS 7.3% IN FY’21
The Wire Staff
New Delhi: India’s economy contracted by 7.3% for the fiscal year 2021 (FY’21), according to new government data released on Monday evening, in what is the latest sign of the economic toll that the coronavirus pandemic and subsequent lockdowns have taken.
Gross domestic product (GDP) for the January-March quarter of FY’21, also known as Q4, grew at 1.6%. This would make it the second straight quarter of growth after exiting the historic technical recession caused by the first wave lockdown. For Q3 FY’21, GDP growth came in at 0.4%.
“Real GDP or Gross Domestic Product (GDP) at Constant (2011-12) Prices in the year 2020-21 is now estimated to attain a level of ?135.13 trillion, as against the First Revised Estimate of GDP for the year 2019-20 of ?145.69 trillion, released on 29th January 2021. The growth in GDP during 2020-21 is estimated at -7.3 per cent as compared to 4.0 per cent in 2019-20,” the statistics ministry said in a statement.
The FY’21 growth numbers announced on Monday are broadly in line with projections that had been made earlier. For instance, the National Statistical Office (NSO) had projected a GDP contraction of 7.7% in 2020-21 in its first advance estimates of national accounts released in January this year.
The NSO, in its second revised estimates, had projected a contraction of 8% for 2020-21.