GDP figure has fallen short of government expectations: FM

01 Dec 2011 Evaluate

India’s gross domestic production (GDP) growth for the second quarter of 2011-12 has declined to its 8 quarter lowest level of 6.9%, Finance Minister Pranab Mukherjee has expressed concerns and said that the figure has fallen short of government expectations.

'Second quarter GDP figure has come. Of course, there was speculation in the market that it would be somewhere between 6.5 % and to 7 % and it is 6.9 %. No doubt, it is well below my projections during the time of the Budget,' Mukherjee said. By adding further he said 'I cannot ignore certain facts which have taken place after the presentation of the Budget, the international financial crisis is having its adverse impact and resulting in slow growth of the Euro and also in America.'

To curb the ascending inflation, the Reserve Bank of India (RBI) has increased its key policy rates by 13 times in last 21 months. However, the headline inflation measured by Wholesale Price Index (WPI) has been hovering above 9% mark from December 2010.

For the current financial year, Finance Minster expects Indian economy to grow by 7.3% which is significantly low as compared to original estimates of 9% made at the start of the year. 'Taking into account the two quarters together, now it appears, it will be around 7.3 % GDP growth. Of course, had it been ten years ago, this would have elated me. But today, I cannot have that satisfaction because we reached the higher trajectory growth and from there we are slipping. Nonetheless, we shall have to try to face the situation and to see what best we can do at this given situation,' Finance Minster added.

Confirming the economic slowdown country’s GDP in the second quarter of 2011-12 fell to 6.9% compared to 8.4% in same period of last financial year. This decline in GDP growth is because of the poor performance of the manufacturing, agriculture and mining sectors. In the second quarter, growth in the manufacturing sector dipped to a meager 2.7% from 7.8% in the corresponding period of 2010-11. The GDP growth in the first half of 2011-12 also moderated to 7.3% from 8.6% in the April-September 2010.

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