Economy down on lack of consumer confidence
Updated: May 31, 2013 12:58:27pm
In a nutshell, the economic turnaround is far away, though spendings by political parties and the government in an election year (2013-14) may boost the expenditure-led demand in select sectors like road construction, stationery, passenger cars and vehicles and food items.
The industry and agriculture could not come up with encouraging numbers in 2012-13 as the manufacturing for the year as a whole grew just by one per cent even as there was some improvement in the last two quarters.
The official data released today throws a strong indication that the turnaround of the Indian economy is still far away and there is a real reason for worry.
While the agriculture sector may change for better due to forecast of normal monsoon, several other key segments of the economy such as manufacturing, construction, mining remain in a slippery zone in the face of receding consumer confidence and high inflation.
Concerns have rightly been reflected by RBI Governor D Subbarao also.
For the last quarter of 2012-13, the overall GDI rates in various sectors were: ‘agriculture, forestry and fishing’ (1.4 per cent), ‘mining and quarrying’ (-3.1 per cent), ‘manufacturing’ (2.6 per cent), ‘electricity, gas and water supply’ (2.8 per cent) ‘construction’ (4.4 per cent), 'trade, hotels, transport and communication' (6.2 per cent), 'financing, insurance, real estate and business services' (9.1 per cent), and 'community, social and personal services' (4.0 per cent) (KNN)