The Challenge Is To Sustain Q1 High Gdp Growth At 8.2%

The gross domestic product (GDP) performance of the first quarter (April-June) of the current financial year 2018-19 (FY19) has been beyond anyone’s expectation.

- Kishore Kumar Biswas

An 8.2% growth of GDP, although from a low base of 5.6% in Q1 FY18, is commendable when one compares it with that of other countries, big or small. What is the source of this high growth? The foremost areas are agriculture, manufacturing and construction. A 5.2% growth of agriculture is really noteworthy. Going into it deeper one can find that the grain production is not performing very highly. At an average of 2 to 2.3/3% growth of grain is quite normal. The better performance in agriculture has been due to progress in allied activities. Vegetable production has been noteworthy, for example. In spite of all these, a section of economists are talking about the continued rural stress and the lack of rising purchasing power that has been a drag on the consumption demand in the economy. This has been a very big challenge for our policymakers.