Third quarter substantially impacted by demonetisation: Jaitley after UK visit

Finance Minister Arun Jaitley, who returned to India after his meeting with top government officials and business leaders in London, today said the third quarter was substantially impacted by demonetisation, which admittedly had led to squeeze of currency in the economy.

"We had the Q3 data, which was released yesterday showcasing that the months were substantially affected by demonetization," Jaitley told reporters here.

"The agriculture growth is record high, which has contributed to the Q3 GDP," Jaitley added while claiming that remonitisation has picked up substantially, which has its own resilience on the economy.

The government yesterday pegged the GDP growth at a higher than expected 7.1 percent for the current fiscal despite the note ban issue.

It has said that the agriculture sector has been doing exceptionally well, helping India retain the tag of world's fastest growing major economy.

"During my visit, I had detailed discussions with various UK investors who are extremely buoyant and positive about India," he said.

"They are extremely buoyant about the fact that under the present global situation, India is the only economy, which has been the able to bring reforms and maintain higher rate of growth as far as the economy is concerned," Jaitley said while talking about the India-UK relationship that is regarded as the "hugely important" partnership.

He added the UK Government post Brexit is keen in expanding their relationship with India.