Economy Grew At 8.7% In 2021-22, Above Pre-Pandemic Level

The Indian economy grew 8.7 per cent in 2021-22, with the gross domestic product (GDP) expanding 4.1 per cent in the March quarter from a year ago.

The GDP growth for 2021-22 takes the economy above its pre-pandemic level and is an improvement after contracting 6.6 per cent in 2020-21.

But the January-March quarter expansion was the weakest in the previous fiscal year. It is lesser than the 5.4 per cent growth seen during the December quarter of 2021-22.

At the same time, the 4.1 per cent growth in March quarter of 2021-22 is an expansion over the meagre 1.6 per cent growth seen during the fourth quarter of 2020-21.

Incidentally, the economic growth during the entire fiscal of 2021-22 has gradually spiralled downwards with each quarter.

In the first quarter of 2021-22, the economic growth had been a stupendous 20.1 per cent, which however was mainly due to the low base effect.

In the second quarter it was 8.4 per cent, while it was 5.4 per cent in third quarter. Now for the fourth quarter it has slid down to 4.1 per cent.

The GDP for 2021-22 though is lesser than the 8.9 per cent growth estimated by the Ministry of Statistics and Programme Implementation (MoSPI), which releases the GDP data.

The 8.7 per cent growth also falls way short of the Reserve Bank of India's (RBI) estimation of  9.5 per cent of GDP growth for 2021-22.

Even the March quarter growth of 4.1 per cent is much lesser than RBI's projection for the period, which was estimated to be at 6.1 per cent.