English
New Delhi: India’s GDP growth rate on Friday inched up marginally to 4.7 per cent after being bottomed out at a six-year low 4.5 per cent during the third quarter that ended in December last year. Meanwhile, the Indian rupee has tumbled 60 paise to 72.21 (provisional) against the US dollar.
The GDP growth was registered at 5.6 per cent in the corresponding quarter of 2018-19, as per the data released by the National Statistical Office (NSO).
The Reserve Bank had also estimated 5 per cent GDP growth for 2019-20. China’s economic growth was 6 per cent in October-December 2019, which was the weakest expansion in over 27 years. China’s economic growth was 6.1 per cent in 2019 (calendar year), the slowest in about three decades.
Although the growth is in line with the expectations for the current fiscal year, analysts have noted that its effects will be muted due to the slowdown in global markets in view of fears resulting from the deadly coronavirus epidemic that has spread across three continents.
At the same time, India’s fiscal deficit touched 128.5 per cent of the whole year budget target at January-end, as compared to 121.5 per cent deficit of last year’s Revised Budget Estimate (RE). While presenting the Union Budget to Parliament earlier this month, Finance Minister Nirmala Sitharaman had raised fiscal deficit target to 3.8 per cent of the GDP from 3.3 per cent pegged earlier for 2019-20 due to revenue shortage.
Earlier today, the pandemic fears caused the stock market to crash with both BSE’s Sensex and NSE’s Nifty 50 index recording a massive fall by over 3.5 per cent each. While the S&P BSE Sensex closed at 1,448.37 points (down 3.64%) to settle at 38,297.29, the broader Nifty 50 index witnessed a fall of 431.55 points (down 3.71%), finishing at 11,201.75 points.
With PTI inputs
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