India’s Gross Domestic Product for the fourth quarter (January to March) grew by 1.6% but the growth rate for the entire financial year of 2020-2021 contracted by 7.3%, government data showed on Monday. This is the worst contraction for a financial year in four decades.
Economists had expressed concerns about this quarter due to a devastating second wave of the coronavirus pandemic. They also said slow recovery in key sectors like manufacturing, financial services, tourism, transport and hospitality will hurt the country’s growth.
Data released by the Centre in February showed that India’s economic growth for the third quarter (October-December) of 2020-’21 was 0.4%. The fourth quarter data showed that the economy continued its positive growth after contracting in two successive quarters.
However, the government revised the second advance estimate for the full financial year 2020-’21 to project a sharper decline of 8%, as compared to the 7.7% contraction it had…