NOTE BAN DRAGS INDIAN GDP DOWN

Hit
hard by demonetisation, India lost the tag of the fastest growing
economy to China in the March quarter with a GDP growth of 6.1 per
cent, pulling down the 2016-17 expansion to a three-year low of 7.1
per cent. The bad news of the economy growing at the slowest pace in
three years mainly on account of poor performance of manufacturing
and service sectors come at a time when the Modi government is
celebrating three years in office. The GDP growth was 8 per cent in
2015-16 and 7.5 per cent in the previous year. The growth for the
2016-17 fiscal slowed down despite very good showing by the
agricultural sector. China had reported a growth of 6.9 per cent in
the January-March quarter of 2017. India had for the first time
outpaced China in GDP growth rate in 2015. As per the data released
by the Central Statistics Office (CSO), the expansion in Gross Value
Added (GVA) during the fourth quarter of 2016-17 fell sharply to 5.6
per cent as compared to 8.7 per cent in the comparable period o…