State of India's Economy

The Indian economy slowed down in 2011-12, compared not just to the previous two years but 2003 to 2011 (except 2008-09). However, India remains among the front-runners.

With agriculture and services continuing to perform well, India’s slowdown can be attributed almost entirely to the weakening industrial growth. The manufacturing sector grew by 2.7 per cent and 0.4 per cent in the second and third quarters of 2011-12, respectively. Inflation as measured by the wholesale price index (WPI), was high during most of the fiscal year, though by the year’s end there was a clear slowdown. Food inflation, in particular, came down to around zero, with most of the remaining WPI inflation being driven by non-food manufacturing products.

Monetary policy was tightened by the Reserve Bank of India (RBI) during the year to control inflation and curb inflationary expectations.

The global economic environment turned sharply adverse in September 2011, owing to the turmoil in the euro-zone and questions about the outlook on the US economy provoked by rating agencies.

The macroeconomic situation in February 2011—at the time of presentation of Economic Survey 2010-11—looked positive, even though there was some concern about industrial slowdown. Economic Survey 2010-11 had anticipated that the Indian economy would register growth of around 9 per cent (+ or - 0.25 per cent) in 2011-12, almost reverting to the pre-crisis levels achieved during the three-year period, from 2005-06 to 2007-08. However, during the course of the year it became increasingly clear that economy would fall short of that growth rate by a significant margin.

At sectoral level, growth is estimated to be 2.5 per cent for 2011-12 for agriculture and allied sectors, a little lower than expected. Growth in the services sector is likely to be 9.4 per cent in 2011-12, as against 9.3 per cent in 2010-11. Thus, it was primarily the dip in growth in industry to 3.9 per cent in 2011-12 that led to the...