Congress leader P Chidambaram poked fun at the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) on Saturday, 1 December, over the GDP data, saying it did not warrant any jubilation by the ruling party.
In a series of tweets, the former finance minister said that as expected, the GDP growth in the July-September quarter (Q2) of 2018-19 was one percent lower than the first quarter.
Chidambaram said going forward, it was likely that the October-December (Q3) and January-March (Q4) quarters would register similar growth rates unless there were unexpected shocks.
India's economy grew at 7.1 percent in the July-September quarter, lowest in three quarters, but still remained ahead of China to retain the tag of the world’s fastest growing major economy.
The Gross Domestic Product at constant prices (2011-12) had grown at 6.3 percent in the July-September quarter of the last fiscal, according to government data released Friday, 30 December.
The size of the GDP in the second quarter of 2018-19 is estimated at Rs 33.98 lakh crore, as against Rs 31.72 lakh crore a year ago, showing a growth rate of 7.1 percent, according to a statement of the Central Statistics Office.
The Indian economy grew at 8.2 percent in the April-June quarter of this fiscal. The GDP growth was 7.7 percent in the January-March quarter.
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