Growth deceleration

Advance estimates of GDP growth disappoint

The Central Statistics Office (CSO), which released the first advance estimates of economic growth on Monday, expects gross domestic product to grow at 7.2 per cent for 2018-19. While this is an improvement over the 6.7 per cent growth in the previous year, the estimate has come as a disappointment because it is below the expectation of most institutions mapping the Indian economy. For instance, both the Reserve Bank of India as well as the International Monetary Fund expected the economy to grow by 7.4 per cent this year. Even the Union finance ministry expected a growth rate of 7.5