New Delhi: Domestic rating agency ICRA Ratings predicts that the technical slowdown in the country’s economy will end in the fourth quarter of the current financial year 2020-21. The ICRA has projected a 7.8 percent fall in gross domestic product (GDP) in the current financial year. In the second quarter (July-September) of the current financial year, the Indian economy has fallen by 7.5 percent. Gross domestic product (GDP) declined by 23.9 percent in the first April-June quarter.
The rating agency said that the Indian economy would decline by one per cent in the third October-December quarter of the current financial year due to steady performance in the agriculture sector and slow improvement in the connectivity sector. ICRA chief economist Aditi Nair said good news about the covid-19 vaccine, along with better procurement and favorable outlook for the Rabi season, would strengthen demand and improve economic activity in the fourth January-March quarter.
Nair said in a report that the technical slowdown in the country’s economy will end in the fourth quarter. The economy will grow at 1.3 per cent in the fourth quarter due to real improvement and lower base effect. With this, GDP is expected to fall by 7.8 percent in the current financial year. The rating agency had forecast a seven to nine per cent decline in the Indian economy in the current fiscal year after the National Statistics Office (NSO) released its second quarter GDP figures.
