India’s annual economic growth fell down to 7.1% in the July-September quarter of FY 2018-19 against 8.2% in the April-June quarter, according to government data released on Friday.
 
The GDP growth rate in the April-June quarter of 2018-19 was at 8.2% on strong performance of manufacturing and agriculture sectors.
 
“GDP at Constant (2011-12) Prices in Q2 of 2018-19 is estimated at Rs 33.98 lakh crore, as against Rs 31.72lakh crore in Q2 of 2017-18, showing a growth rate of 7.1%,” a government statement said.
 
“The Economic Activities which registered growth of over 7% in Q2 of 2018-19 over Q2 of 2017-18 are ‘Manufacturing, ‘Electricity, Gas, Water Supply & Other Utility Services’‘Construction’ and‘Public Administration, Defence and Other Services’,” it added.
 
According to the estimates of Gross Domestic Product(GDP), released by the Central Statistics Office (CSO), Ministry of Statistics and Programme Implementation,
 
“The growth in the Services related to Broadcasting’ and Financial, Real Estate and Professional Services is estimated to be 3.8%, (-) 2.4%, 6.8%, and 6.3% respectively during this period.”
 
This comes ahead of 2019 Lok Sabha polls as Prime Minister Narendra Modi is looking for another term at the Centre.
 
The Reserve Bank of India has forecast economic growth of 7.4% for the financial year ending in March, recovering from 6.7% in the previous year, slowest in four years.
 
On Wednesday, government revised growth estimates during UPA era. The new numbers, which have been calculated by changing base year to 2011-12 from 2005-06, show India’s economic growth rate averaged 6.7% during the Congress-led UPA regime as compared to 7.3% under the present government.
 
Previous numbers had put the average growth rate during the 10-year UPA rule at 7.75 %.