Statsguru: Economic growth slows to 6-quarter low of 6.6% in Q3FY19

India’s economic growth slowed down to a six-quarter low of 6.6 per cent in the third quarter of the current financial year, showed data released by the Central Statistics Office (CSO). As shown in Chart 1, growth is expected to be marginally lower at 6.5 per cent in Q4FY19.

The CSO also lowered its growth estimate for the full year to 7 per cent, down from 7.2 per cent earlier. This implies that over the past five years, the economy has grown at the slowest pace in FY19 (Chart 2).

Sector-wise data shows that growth in Q3FY19 was pulled down largely by agriculture and public administration. As seen in Chart 3, agricultural growth slumped to 2.7 per cent in Q3FY19, from 4.2 per cent in Q2FY19. 

Similarly, public administration, which connotes On the other hand, construction continued to grow at a robust pace. As seen in Chart 4, the sector is expected to grow at a robust 9.2 per cent in FY19, up from 5.2 per cent in FY18. 

And while growth in manufacturing value added slowed down to 6.7 per cent in Q3FY19, from 12.4 per cent in Q1FY19, the sector is expected to grow at a higher 8.6 per cent in FY19, up from 4.6 per cent the year before.

On the expenditure side, CSO data shows that both private (Chart 5) as well as government consumption expenditure (Chart 6) slowed down in the third quarter of the current financial year. However, gross fixed capita formation, which connotes investments, continued to grow at a robust pace (Chart 3).   

StatsGuru is a weekly feature. Every Monday, Business Standard guides you through the numbers you need to know to make sense of the headlines/ Source: CSO, MOSPI; Compiled by BS Research Bureau