Growth slips to 5%, raises hope of rate cut rate by RBI

Economic growth rate slipped to a decade low of 5 per cent in 2012-13 on account of poor performance of farm, manufacturing and mining sectors, raising hopes for rate cut by Reserve Bank to boost economy.
The growth rate in the fourth quarter ending on March 31, stood at 4.8 per cent showing a marginal improvement over 4.7 per cent recorded in the third quarter of 2012-13.
"Growth numbers are as per expectations," Finance Minister P Chidambaram said after the CSO released data on national income accounts here today.
Commenting on the the data, Planning Commission Deputy Chairman Montek Singh Ahluwalia said, "There is evidence the economy has bottomed out. But we still don't have evidence of a strong recovery. It is challenging to get to 6 per cent (growth) where last quarter is 4.8 per cent."

According to the finance ministry, the growth in the current fiscal is likely to improve to 6.1-6.7 per cent.
Economic growth or gross domestic product (GDP) had expanded by 5.1 per cent in January-March quarter of last fiscal. Economy had grown at 4 per cent in 2002-03.

India's economic growth was at 6.2 per cent for the 2011-12 fiscal. It had grown by 5.4 per cent, 5.2 per cent and 4.7 per cent in the first, second and third quarters, respectively, of 2012-13, the data showed.
Prime Minister's Economic Advisory Council Chairman C Rangarajan said, "GDP numbers has been on expected lines.... as far as manufacturing is concerned perhaps we have reached the bottom.

"WPI based inflation has slowed, I think there is a greater room for the RBI to act," he added.
The RBI is scheduled to announce its mid-quarter policy review on June 17. In its last review, it had cut the key interest rates by 0.25 per cent.
"CII has been advocating further easing of the monetary policy with a reduction in repo rate and Cash Reserve Ratio (CRR)," CII Director General Chandrajit Banerjee said.
The BSE sensex slipped by 485 points to 19,730.55 during the intra-day trade.