The Ministry of Statistics and Programme Implementation (MoSPI) has earlier today released the provisional estimates for the economy in the Q1 (Apr-Jun), FY 2021. The GDP for the quarter at constant prices (2011-12), has contracted by a whopping 23.9% (y-o-y) – the sharpest drop in the GDP ever recorded. The GDP at current prices in the year has witnessed a contraction of 22.6%. The quarterly Gross Value Added (GVA) at Basic Price at Constant (2011-12) has contracted by 22.8% while the GVA at current prices has shrunk by 20.6%. The GDP had registered a growth of 3.1% in the last quarter of FY20 (Jan-Mar).
The contraction of the economy in the first quarter of FY2021 was expected in line of the nation-wide lockdown imposed in the light of the COVID-19 pandemic. The government imposed a lockdown from midnight of March 24th, 2020 which brought practically all economic activity almost to a standstill across the country. Although the economic activities gradually started opening up through planned relaxations from 1st June, for majority of Q1 – the economy remained in a state of near suspension.
As per the government data, all key sectors except Agriculture, Forestry & Fishing witnessed contraction in the current quarter. The worst performance was observed in Construction and Trade/Hotels/Transport/Communication services. A summary of sectoral performance is given below:
Contraction in growth was observed in most countries in the Apr-Jun period as an outcome of the pandemic.
With the pandemic continuing to rage in the country and economic activities still not running at optimum, experts remain unsure about economic revival in the rest of the year.
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