Monsoon rains a quarter below average in past week

By Ratnajyoti Dutta

NEW DELHI (Reuters) - India's rainfall was a quarter below average in the week to Aug. 20, the weather office said on Thursday, the second straight week of deficiency after a revival in early August.

The monsoon rains weakened across the nation last week, except in a few parts of North India, which saw flooding due to heavy rains in the Himalayas.

The rainfall deficit, since the beginning of the season in June, was at 18 percent below average, unchanged from the prior week.

"The weak phase is expected to spill over to the next week,"

said D.S. Pai, the lead forecaster of the India Meteorological Department (IMD).

"We expect a wet run from late August to early September," Pai told Reuters by telephone from the western city of Pune.

India's farm sector accounts for 14 percent of the national economy, and the annual rains act as the top determinant for rural spends on consumer goods, ranging from lipstick to cars as two-thirds of its 1.2 billion people live in villages.

The annual monsoon rains are vital for the farm dependent Indian economy as over half of its farm lands lack irrigation.

Heavy rains in the Himalayas inundated nearly 1,500 villages in northern India, killing 80 people and leaving thousands homeless, according to the latest official update.

(Reporting by Ratnajyoti Dutta; editing by Malini Menon)