GDP up at 5.7% in Q1, trend likely to continue

Improved performance of mining, manufacturing and services sector pushed India's economic growth rate to two-and-half year high of 5.7 per cent in the April-June quarter, a development which the Finance Ministry expects to continue for rest of the fiscal.
"The performance of the economy in the first quarter (Q1) of 2014-15 is broadly on expected lines... With improvement in some important sectors including manufacturing and exports, along with the measures taken by the government, the economy can be expected to show further improvement in the remaining part of the year," Finance Minister Arun Jaitley said.
India's Gross Domestic Product had expanded by 4.7 per cent in the April-June quarter of the last fiscal ended March 31. In the January-March period (last quarter of 2013-14), it was 4.6 per cent.

The previous high of GDP growth rate was recorded at 6 per cent in the October-December quarter of 2011-12.
According to data released here today by the Central Statistics Office (CSO), the manufacturing sector recorded a growth of 3.5 per cent in Q1, 2014-15 as against a contraction of 1.2 per cent in Q1, 2013-14.
The mining sector too grew by 2.1 per cent in Q1, compared to a decline in production by 3.9 per cent in the year-ago period.

The highest growth rate during Q1, 2014-15 was recorded by financial services sector at 10.4 per cent, followed by electricity gas and water supply at 10.2 per cent.

"In order to convert the first signs of revival into a full-fledged recovery, it is necessary that the government continues on its path of implementing the reforms agenda which would restart the investment cycle and revive demand in the economy," CII Director General Chandrajit Banerjee said.
The construction sector expanded 4.8 per cent in first quarter of this fiscal as against 1.1 per cent growth in the year-ago period.
Growth in the trade, hotels, transport and communications segment also inched up to 2.8 per cent in Q1, from 1.6 per cent in the same period of 2013-14.