India’s economic growth slowed to a near 7-year low of 4.7 per cent in October-December 2019 on continued slump in manufacturing, and now faces the next big challenge of coronavirus outbreak stifling global growth.
Despite being one of the strongest periods due to festival season and higher rural spending driven by kharif harvest, October-December was the third straight quarter of growth decline and the lowest rate in 27 quarters.
The Government retained its estimate of 5 per cent GDP growth for the fiscal year through March, the lowest for 11 years. This, after the first quarter growth was revised upwards to 5.6 per cent from earlier estimate of 5 per cent.