Economic Growth Accelerates To 20.1% Year-On-Year In June Quarter

India's gross domestic product (GDP) showed an impressive growth as it shot up to record a 20.1 per cent rise in the April-June period or the first quarter of 2021-22. The growth is a remarkable recovery from the negative growth which was witnessed during the corresponding period of last fiscal when it was a dismal -24.4 per cent, mainly due to Coronavirus induced lockdowns.

The remarkable improvement in the June quarter GDP rate, despite the onslaught of the fierce second wave of the pandemic suggests that the country's economy recovered rapidly after registering negative growth for the first two quarters of 2020-21.

This is the third consecutive quarter when positive growth has been witnessed, as GDP had grown by 0.5 per cent third quarter of 2020-21 and 1.6 per cent in the fourth quarter of 2020-21.

However the double digit growth in GDP is in sync with predictions of several polls as well as that of the Reserve Bank of India (RBI).

The central bank had predicted that the GDP in the first quarter of 2021-22 is likely to grow at 18.5 per cent from earlier projected growth rate of 26.2 per cent.

Though in June this year, it had slashed the GDP growth forecast for 2021-2022 from 10.5 per cent to 9.5 per cent.

In the first two quarters of 2020-21, the growth was -24.4 per cent and -7.4 per cent respectively, as the country was under complete lockdown due to the outbreak of the Coronavirus pandemic and all economic activities had come to a halt. 

Gradually after restrictions were lifted and festival season related activities started from October 2020 onwards, the third and fourth quarters showed meagre but positive growth.