JOIN USEconomy grows 8.64 pc in Q4
The economy grew by a robust 8.6 per cent in the fourth quarter, fuelled by 16.3 per cent expansion in manufacturing sector. Earlier, the Central Statistical Organisation (CSO) had estimated the economy to grow by 7.2 per cent for 2009-10.
The 7.4 per cent growth clearly showed that governmenr stimulus through excise duty and service tax cuts have yielded results, as the manufacturing sector posted 10.8 per cent growth against 3.2 per cent a year ago. Bolstered by the growth numbers, Finance Minister Pranab Mukherjee said: “I have already stated 8.5 per cent... about 8.5 per cent plus for the current fiscal should be achievable.”
Sectoral growth
Besides manufacturing, mining and quarrying expanded by double digits—10.6 per cent in 2009-10, better than the advance estimates that had pegged it at 8.7 per cent. Among services, trade, hotels, transport and communication rose by 9.3 per cent against advance estimates of 8.3 per cent. The growth numbers of all the previous three quarters has also been revised. While the second quarter saw growth at 8.6 per cent against provisional estimates of 7.9 per cent, third quarter GDP rose by 6.5 per cent against six per cent.
The first quarter GDP, however, was revised downwards to 6 per cent against 6.1 per cent estimated provisionally.
Explaining the rationale of revising quarterly figures, Chief Statistician Pronab Sen said, “normally we do not change quarterly figure, unless the annual figure firms up. This time it was done because we changed base year to 2004-05 from 1999-2000 earlier.”
The base year for calculating national income was revised from the third quarter onwards.The Bombay Stock Exchange welcomed the GDP figures and ended the day 81 points up. However, India Inc has cautioned the Reserve Bank of India against signalling a hike in interest rates on the basis of growth numbers in 2009-10 as it may impede future growth.
“Hiking of interest rates at this point in time will act as a break on the overall growth process,” Ficci President Rajan Bharti Mittal said. Global financial firm Barclays Capital said containing inflation is likely to remain the key policy priority of the Reserve Bank of India and the central bank may hike short-term rates by 25 basis points.
Per capita income jumps 10.5 per cent
The per capita income grew by 10.5 per cent to Rs 44,345 in 2009-10 against Rs 40,141 in the year-ago period, according to the government data, reports PTI from New Delhi.
The per capita income was slightly higher than Rs 43,749 as calculated by the Central Statistical Organisation (CSO) in its advance estimates for FY10. However,per capita income grew by 5.6 per cent last fiscal if it is calculated on the basis of 2004-05 prices, which is a better way of comparison and broadly factors inflation.
Per capita income (at 2004-05 prices) stood at Rs 33,588 in FY10 against Rs 31,821 in the previous year, according to estimates of national income released, on Monday.