India posts 5.5% quarterly growth, beats forecasts
The figure, which beat market expectations of 5.3 percent expansion, offered some relief to the embattled government of Prime Minister Manmohan Singh, which has been reeling from a string of political scandals.
Manufacturing output rose by a scant 0.2 percent in the quarter, the first of the 2012-13 fiscal year, and output from the construction sector climbed 10.9 percent.
The headline growth figure, which was higher than the 5.3 percent in the January-March quarter, was still far below the near double-digit levels India says it needs to provide jobs to its hundreds of millions of young people.
Global rating agencies like Fitch and Standard & Poor's have lowered their outlook on India's investment-grade rating amid rising worries about the government's deteriorating finances and negative current account.
The central Reserve Bank of India has warned that the country's economic prospects are unlikely to improve significantly in the near-term, due to elevated inflation and lack of economic reforms.
The bank has kept interest rates on hold since April -- when it cut rates for the first time in three years by 50 basis points -- and economists do not expect the bank to lower rates in a hurry while inflation remains near seven percent.
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@gp65: well EU & US are developed countries they can manage this negative growth! your comparison is not logical. the negative growth rate in EU & US will affect India more than anyone else, its the other way around. India need's to maintain double digit growth rate in order to provide basic necessities to 800 million poor people, shining India is still way in distant, money in the hands few does not make a country shining, re-evaluate your country & get some reality check :)
@Tony Singh: "Its poor growth. We have to grow at nearly 10% annually to surmount our problems "
True India needs higher growth to provide a minimum security net to the deprived in India. But EU had negative growth last quarter, Japan had 0.3% gowth annd US had 1.3% growth. It is in this context that growth in an increasingly globalized India is to be viewed.
India’s Q1 GDP hits decade low 5.5%
Its poor growth. We have to grow at nearly 10% annually to surmount our problems
Beats forecast read Pakistani forecast. Joke aside when US is thinking of third economic stimulus, EU is suffering from debt crisis, Japan is dealing with nuclear meltdown and spending money on clean up, China export market is slowing down Indian numbers in that background are not that bad. Now a days economies are interlinked globally. Slow down in US and Europe hurts China and India too. Finance Ministers of number of countries globally have not seen 5% growth in last several years. So Kudos to Indians for at least trying. fundamentals are there and in good times numbers will increase.
the story has just begun kids,we are just starting,lot more growth will come,the slowdown is just a minor hiccup in the long run.
greeeat...
India needs double digit growth rate for coming few years in order to provide for its 1.2 billion people! Even China's growth rate has come down a bit. Tough times ahead for India.