Unemployment Highest in 45 Years, Annual GDP Shows Sharp Decline

New Delhi, May 31, 2019:

India's Gross Domestic Product (GDP) has fallen from 7.2 per cent in Financial Year 2017-18 to 6.8 per cent in FY 2018-19. Official data released on Friday suggested that it is due to poor performance in agriculture and manufacturing sectors. Moreover, latest data suggests that unemployment in the country is at an all-time high in ages.

In FY 2018-2019 ,first quarter, the GDP growth slowed down to hit below 6 per cent. In March last year, Indian GDP grew to 8.1 per cent against 5.8 per cent this year, data from Central Statistics Office said.

The March quarter has seen the Slowest GDP growth rate in five years since 2014-15. The previous low was 6.4 per cent in 2013-14.

GDP figures for March quarter also put India behind China's GDP growth rate for the first time in seven quarters. China registered a GDP growth rate of 6.4 per cent in quarter which ended in March.

According to government data, the growth of eight core sectors fell from 4.7 per cent in April last year to 2.6 per cent in same month this year.

Finance Secretary Subhash Garg told media that the economic slump has been caused by temporary reasons, like the financial crisis in NBFC. "Now consumer finance is picking up and, as a result, NBFC is recovering and core industry is picking. This slowdown may continue to reflect in the first quarter of next financial year, but we are expecting good result from second quarter", he added.

The government also released the controversial unemployment figures. The data released by Central Statistics Office on Friday says India’s unemployment rate rose to 6.1 per cent in the 2017-18 fiscal year, which is the highest in 45 years.

The fiscal deficit for 2018-19 came in at 3.39 per cent of GDP, which is marginally lower than 3.4 per cent estimated in the revised estimates of the Budget. This is mainly due to increase in non-tax revenue and lower expenditure.

The Fiscal deficit at the end of March 31, 2019, stood at Rs 6.45 lakh crore as against Rs 6.34 lakh crore in the revised estimates of Budget.

The fiscal deficit for 2018-19 works out to be 3.39 per cent of GDP, as per data released by Controller General of Accounts (CGA).

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