India’s GDP grows by 1.6% in Q4, but contracts to 7.3% in 2020-21

New Delhi: India’s economy grew by 1.6 percent in the fourth quarter of 2020-21, restricting the full-year contraction to 7.3 percent, official data showed on Monday. The fourth quarter growth was better than the 0.5 percent expansion in the previous October-December quarter of 2020-21. The gross domestic product (GDP) had expanded by 3 percent in the corresponding January-March period of 2019-20, according to data released by the National Statistical Office (NSO).

In 2020-21, the Indian economy contracted by 7.3 percent against 4 percent expansion in 2019-20, showing the economic impact of the COVID-19 pandemic. The NSO had projected a GDP contraction of 7.7 percent in 2020-21 in its first advance estimates of national accounts released in January this year. The NSO, in its second revised estimates, had projected a contraction of 8 percent for 2020-21. China has recorded a 18.3 percent growth in January-March 2021.