Top BJP leaders congratulated PM Modi after impressive GDP figures for Q3.
BJP President Amit Shah and senior ministers of the NDA government tweeted with the hashtag #IndiaonFastTrack after a sharp uptick in GDP numbers for Q3 of the current financial year. They hailed PM Modi's leadership for the rebound in the economy.
Showing signs of recovery, the Indian economy recorded a five-quarter high growth of 7.2% in the October-December period on good showing by key sectors like agriculture, construction and manufacturing.
Besides, the data for eight core infrastructure sectors including coal, steel, cement and petroleum, showed improved growth of 6.7% for January, up from 3.4% in same month a year ago. The finance ministry said that the data indicate a broad-based and significant acceleration of real economic activity as projected in the Economic Survey. "...Robust growth in manufacturing and significant acceleration in construction mark a turnaround in the country's economic growth momentum," the ministry said in a statement. According to the chairman of EAC to PM, Bibek Debroy, the economy is on the right track to accelerate and the current expansion in the growth rate in a reflection of the reforms initiated by the government.
He said the growth will pick up further in the upcoming quarter driven by the government's commitment to implement structural reforms and aided by higher growth in the industrial and services sector as well as spending by the Centre. "India is on the right path to become one of the fastest major economy in the World surpassing China," Debroy said. The economy is expected to grow at 6.6% in the current fiscal ending March 31, as per the second advanced estimates of the Central Statistics Office (CSO), compared to 7.1% in 2016-17. The earlier estimate was 6.5%. The growth for the second quarter (July-September) has been revised upwards to 6.5%, from 6.3% estimated earlier by the CSO. The previous high was recorded at 7.5% in the July-September quarter of 2016-17.
This positive data was followed by torrent of tweets from top BJP leaders. They claimed that the GDP figure is a clear indication that Indian economy is on a path of robust growth. Soon #IndiaonFastTrack became top trending topic on Twitter.
At a time when the government has received flak for downturn in economy post double whammy of GST and demonetization, it is looking to politically leverage the rebound in the economy. The fact that the eight core sectors have shown improvement in growth is also a much needed boost. So expectedly, leaders hailed the numbers.
CII Director General Chandrajit Banerjee said: "The significant improvement in GDP growth, which has accelerated to a robust 7.2% in the third quarter as against 6.5% in the previous quarter is noteworthy and strengthens the perception that the Indian economy is at the threshold of a sustained rebound in growth." The gross valued added (GVA) for manufacturing in the quarter under review grew at 8.9% higher than 6.9% in the previous quarter.
Similarly, the farm sector GVA grew at 4.1% compared to 2.7% in the previous quarter. The construction sector recorded a growth of 6.8%, higher than 2.8% in previous quarter. The services segment including financial services grew at rate of 6.7% up from 6.4% in previous quarter. As per the data, eight core sectors -- coal, crude oil, natural gas, refinery products, fertilisers, steel, cement and electricity -- had grown by 4.2% in December, and 7.4% in November of the current financial year. Petroleum refinery production spurted 11% in January against a flat output in the year-ago month. Cement output jumped 20.7% in the month against 13.3% contraction in the year-ago period.
Electricity generation growth also fast paced to 8.2% in January against 5.2% in January 2017. Coal sector output improved by 3% and steel production by 3.7% in January 2018. Crude oil production however dropped 3.2%, fertilisers by 1.6% and natural gas by 1% in the month under review. Cumulatively, the growth in the eight core sectors during April-January this fiscal slowed to 4.3% as against 5.1% in the same period last fiscal. The growth in key sectors will have implications for the Index of Industrial Production (IIP) as these eight segments account for about 41% of the total factory output.
With PTI inputs
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