No hiding facts after polls: GDP growth slows to 5-year low at 5.8%

A worker pours molten iron from a ladle to make lamp posts inside an iron casting factory in Ahmedabad. REUTERS/Amit Dave

New Delhi: India's economic growth rate slowed to five-year low of 5.8 per cent in January-March 2018-19, due to poor performance in agriculture and manufacturing sectors, official data released Friday said.

The Central Statistics Office (CSO) also revealed that GDP growth during 2018-19 fiscal stood at 6.8 per cent, lower than 7.2 per cent in the previous financial year.

The growth in gross domestic product (GDP) was slowest since 2014-15. The previous low was 6.4 per cent in 2013-14.

The fourth quarter growth was below China's 6.4 per cent.

India's April-June economic growth rate could be "relatively slower", Finance Secretary Subhash Chandra Garg said.

Garg said that India's growth rate, which has been hit due to weak consumption demand and private investment, will start turning around from the July-September quarter with favourable interest rates and an improvement in liquidity.

(With inputs from PTI and Reuters)

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