MUMBAI, May 3 (Xinhua) -- India's declining private consumption, marginal rise in fixed investment and muted exports had a cascading effect on the country's slowing economy during 2018-19 (April-March), said the monthly report for March curated by the Ministry of Finance.
The real GDP growth has seen a decline, private consumptions in the Jan-March quarter has also declined, which is reflected in the drop of growth of two-wheeler sales, the report, which was released amid the ongoing seven phase Parliamentary polls, said.
The real challenge on the supply side is to reverse the slowdown in the growth of the agriculture sector and sustain the growth momentum in the industry. However, on a positive note, there are expectations that the current account deficit as a ratio to GDP will fall in Jan-March of 2018-19.
The real effective exchange rate has appreciated in Jan-March of 2018-19 and could pose challenges to the revival of exports in the near future. Increase in foreign exchange reserves in Q4 of 2018-19 on account of improvement in trade balance has increased the import cover for the economy, the report said.
Earlier, this month, a World Bank official said that India's economic growth in recent years was driven by domestic demand and its exports were about one third of its potential.
World Bank had pegged India's GDP growth to accelerate moderately to 7.5 percent in Fiscal Year 2019-20.
