GDP growth slips to 5.3 pc in Q2; raises clamour for rate cut

Poor showing by agriculture and manufacturing sector pulled down the country's economic growth rate to 5.3 per cent in the second quarter, raising the clamour for rate cut by the RBI in its policy due next week.
The Gross Domestic Product (GDP) growth rate declined from 5.7 per cent rate in the first quarter ended June. However, the July-September quarter growth rate was higher compared to 5.2 per cent in the same quarter previous fiscal.
The decline has been mainly on account of subdued performance of agriculture sector as its growth rate slipped to 3.2 per cent in second quarter from 5 per cent in corresponding period last fiscal.

Similarly, the manufacturing sector growth rate declined to 0.1 per cent during July-September quarter from 1.3 per cent a year ago.
Commenting on the GDP data, CII Director General Chandrajit Banerjee said, "RBI should review its status quoist approach and move towards paring interest rates in its forthcoming monetary policy to give a fillip to recovery both through higher consumption spending and opening up channels for investment."
RBI, which has maintained the interest at elevated level for the past 10 months, is scheduled to announce it policy review on December 2.

Wholesale inflation came down to five-year low at 1.77 per cent in October while retail inflation hit a record low 5.52 per cent in the same month.

According to data released here today by the Central Statistics Office (CSO), the economic growth in first half (April-September) of this fiscal was 5.5 per cent as compared to 4.9 per cent in the same period in 2013-14.
The mining sector grew by 1.9 per cent in July-September quarter compared a flat output in same period year-ago. During April-September, the sector grew by 2 per cent compared a contraction of 2 per cent in corresponding period of 2013-14.
During April-September period, the manufacturing sector grew by 1.8 per cent compared to a growth of 0.1 per cent in first half of previous fiscal.

Similarly, the farm sector, which includes agriculture, forestry and fishing, recorded grew by 3.5 per cent in the first half of this fiscal compared to 4.5 per cent in the same period a year ago.