India’s GDP growth slows to 3.1% in Jan.-March

NEW DELHI — India’s economy grew 3.1% in the January-to-March quarter, official data released Friday showed, as the coronavirus pandemic and the nationwide lockdown to curb its spread hit consumers and a broad range of industries.

Ahead of the data release, the State Bank of India, country’s largest state-owned commercial bank, forecast 1.2% growth in the country’s gross domestic product for the quarter, while a Reuters poll of 52 economists predicted an expansion of 2.1%, on average, the weakest since comparable records began in early 2012. The growth rate of the previous three months ended December was revised down to 4.1%, from the previously announced 4.7%. 

For the entire financial year ended March, the economy expanded by 4.2%, compared with 6.1% the previous year.

India’s lockdown, the world’s largest and one of the most stringent, impacting the country’s more than 1.3 billion people, came into force on March 25. It was initially scheduled to last three weeks but has been extended three times through May 31.

It is still unclear whether Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s government will extend the lockdown again, although it has severely jolted an already slowing economy and put over 120 million people out of jobs according to a recent estimate by the Centre for Monitoring Indian Economy.

Economists forecast a further slowdown after the current quarter ending in June, due to the lockdown. Goldman Sachs said in a recent report that India’s economy is likely to contract by 5% for the current financial year through March 2021.

On Friday, India reported its biggest single-day rise in coronavirus infections, with 7,466 new cases over the past 24 hours, bringing the total to 165,799. That includes 4,706 deaths, up 175 during the same period.