India's crucial monsoon rains were 18 percent below average in the week to June 27, the weather office said on its website on Thursday, reflecting a lull phase over oilseed-growing areas of central India.
The monsoon rains are important for farm output and economic growth as about 55 percent of the south Asian nation's arable land is rain-fed, and the farm sector accounts for about 15 percent of a nearly $2-trillion economy, Asia's third-biggest.
The rains had narrowed the deficit in the third week ending June 20 to 5 percent below average, after recording 36 and 50 percent below average rainfall in the first two weeks of the four-month long rainy season.
