Indian economy grew at 7.2 per cent in October-December quarter of the current fiscal, official data released by the Central Statistics Office (CSO) showed today.
For the FY17-18, the CSO pegged Gross Domestic Product (GDP) to grow at 6.6 per cent, compared to 7.1 per cent in 2016-17. The earlier estimate was 6.5 per cent.
"The Real GDP at constant (2011-12) prices in the year 2017-18 is likely to attain a level of Rs 130.04 lakh crore, as against the first revised estimate of GDP for the year 2016-17 of Rs 121.96 lakh crore, released on January 31, 2018. The growth in GDP during 2017-18 is estimated at 6.6 percent as compared to the growth rate of 7.1 percent in 2016-17," the CSP said in a statement.
Also, the growth for the second quarter (July-September) has been revised upwards to 6.5 per cent, from 6.3 per cent estimated earlier by the CSO. The previous high was recorded at 7.5 per cent in the July-September quarter of 2016-17.
The CSO said that the real GDP at constant (2011-12) prices in 2017-18 is likely to be Rs 130.04 lakh crore, as against the first revised estimate for 2016-17 of Rs 121.96 lakh crore, released on January 31.
The growth in GDP during 2017-18 is estimated at 6.6 per cent as compared to the growth rate of 7.1 percent in 2016-17, it added.
The gross valued added (GVA) for manufacturing in the quarter under review grew at 8.9 per cent higher than 6.9 per cent in the previous quarter.
Similarly, the farm sector GVA grew at 4.1 per cent compared to 2.7 per cent in the previous quarter. The construction sector recorded a growth of 6.8 per cent, higher than 2.8 per cent in previous quarter.
The services segment including financial services grew at rate of 6.7 per cent up from 6.4 per cent in previous quarter.
Core sector grows at 6.7% in Jan; Cement, refinery output zoom
Eight infrastructure sectors grew a faster pace of 6.7 per cent in January against 3.4 per cent in the year-ago month as petroleum refinery and cement output zoomed while steel power and coal production improved.
The eight core sectors -- coal, crude oil, natural gas, refinery products, fertilisers, steel, cement and electricity -- had grew by 4.2 per cent in December and 7.4 per cent in November this financial year.
Petroleum refinery production spurted 11 per cent in January against a flat output in the year-ago month. Cement output jumped 20.7 per cent in the month against 13.3 per cent contraction in the year-ago period.
Electricity generation growth also fast paced to 8.2 per cent in January against 5.2 per cent in January 2017.
Coal sector output improved by 3 per cent and steel production by 3.7 per cent in January 2018.
Crude oil production however dropped 3.2 per cent, fertilisers by 1.6 per cent and natural gas by 1 per cent in the month under review.
Cumulatively, the growth in the eight core sectors during April-January this fiscal slowed to 4.3 per cent as against 5.1 per cent in the same period last fiscal.
The growth in key sectors will have implications for the Index of Industrial Production (IIP) as these eight segments account for about 41 per cent of the total factory output.
