'Slowdown has bottomed out'

(With agency inputs)

Q3 GDP growth rate at 4.7% in FY 2019

NEW DELHI: India's gross domestic product (GDP) growth for the third quarter (October-December) stood at 4.7 per cent from 5.1 per cent in the July-September quarter, government data showed on Friday. The revision for the September quarter was up sharply from the 4.5 per cent preliminary report, which would have been the weakest growth in more than six years.The economic growth stood at 5.6 per cent for the same quarter last year. The lowest quarterly growth GDP growth recorded since 2012-13, when the new series began, was 4.3 per cent in March quarter of 2012-13.During the nine-month period (April-December 2019), the Indian economy grew 5.1 per cent as against 6.3 per cent in the same period a year ago.The GDP growth rate for the first quarter of 2019-20 was revised to 5.6 per cent from 5 per cent.The National Statistical Office (NSO) has pegged economic growth at 5 per cent in 2019-20 in its second advance estimates released on Friday, the same as its estimates last month.The decline in the economic growth has bottomed out, said economic affairs secretary Atanu Chakraborty after the data was released. The NSO estimates the GDP growth for the whole fiscal at 5 per cent.A crisis among shadow banks, weak rural spending and a global slowdown conspired to bring down growth steadily. To reverse the slump in economy, the government slashed corporate tax rates, withdrew higher taxes on foreign investors, set up a special real estate fund, merged state-run banks and announced the biggest privatisation drive in more than a decade.Policymakers at the Reserve Bank of India (RBI) might consider more interest rate cuts to prop up economic growth as soon as inflation moderates to its mandated medium-term target of 4 per cent, minutes from their February meeting showed.The Reserve Bank kept repo rate -- rate at which the central bank lends money -- unchanged for the second consecutive time at 5.15 per cent in its sixth bi-monthly monetary policy meet earlier this month."Economic activity remains subdued and the few indicators that have moved up recently are yet to gain traction in a more broad-based manner. Given the evolving growth-inflation dynamics, the MPC felt it appropriate to maintain status quo," the Monetary Policy Committee (MPC) noted after its February meet.Union finance minister Nirmala Sitharaman recently said that the economy is not in trouble and green shoot are visible with the country moving towards a $5 trillion economy.She said that the government's focus is on four engines of growth which include private investment, exports, private and public consumption.While presenting the Union Budget earlier this month, Sitharaman estimated nominal GDP to grow at 10 per cent for financial year 2021.In another set of data released, eight core industries recorded 2.2 per cent year-on-year growth in January. The core industries comprise more than 40 per cent of the weight of items included in the index of industrial production (IIP).The economic affairs secretary Chakraborty said the growth in the core sector industries "augurs well" for the manufacturing sector during the January-March quarter.The cumulative growth of core industries during April, 2019 to January, 2020 stood at 0.6 per cent.