By By Manoj Kumar
NEW DELHI (Reuters) -India’s economic growth slowed to 6.7% year-on-year in the April-June quarter as a decline in government spending during national elections weighed, data showed on Friday, but it remained the world’s fastest-growing major economy.
The rise in gross domestic product was less than a 6.9% expansion forecast by a Reuters poll, and compared to 7.8% growth in the previous quarter.
Still, it was faster than China’s growth of 4.7% in April-June, Asia’s biggest economy, and the slowdown in India is expected to be temporary as economists forecast that easing inflation and a pickup in government spending will shore up growth in the coming months.
Political uncertainty also weighed on investment and consumption during the April-June quarter, the official data showed. However, the Gross Value Added (GVA), seen by economists as a more stable measure of growth, increased by 6.8% in April-June from a year earlier, compared to 6.3% in the previous quarter.
Prime Minister Narendra Modi has taken several steps to boost the economy since recent electoral national elections, in which his Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) failed to win an outright majority and is having to rely on allies to run the government for the first time in a decade.
Manufacturing, which makes up about 17% of India’s GDP, grew by 7% year-on-year in the April-June quarter, compared to an 8.9% expansion in the previous quarter.
Agricultural output rose 2% year on year in the same period, up from 1.1% in the previous quarter. Plentiful rainfall this year is expected to enhance farm output, rural incomes and consumer demand, a trend reflected in the increased sales of two-wheelers and tractors in July.