By NNN-PTI
New Delhi : Confirming fears of a slow down expressed in the Economic Survey, India’s GDP expanded by a tardy 8.4 per cent in the third quarter of 2007-08 primarily due to sluggishness in manufacturing and construction sectors.
According to quarterly estimates of Gross Domestic Product (GDP) released by the government Friday, October- December quarter was the worst in 2007-08 in terms of economic growth (8.4 per cent), which in turn can pull down full year growth to 8.7 per cent as feared by the Economic Survey.
While the growth rate of the manufacturing sector came down to 9.3 per cent during October-December 2007 from 11.3 per cent in the corresponding period previous year, the construction sector growth rate dipped to 8.4 per cent from 10.8 per cent during the same period.
The Economic Survey, tabled by Finance Minister P Chidambaram in Parliament Thursday, had said growth would fall to 8.7 per cent as the economy faced the challenges of poor performance by infrastructure and industrial sectors.
The GDP growth rate during nine month period (April- December 2007) worked out to be 8.9 per cent down from 9.6 per cent during the corresponding period last year.
The agriculture and allied sector growth rate during Q3 declined to 3.2 per cent from 3.4 per cent in the corresponding quarter in the last fiscal.
The GDP growth rate was 9.3 per cent in the first quarter of this fiscal before it dipped to 8.9 per cent in Q2. The third quarter of 2007-08 is also the worst quarter in terms of growth since April 2006.