Unravelling India's growth story

Major structural reforms are needed to raise growth rates to the highs achieved between 2003 and 2008

The Central Statistical Office’s (CSO’s) gross domestic product (GDP) data show that the economic expansion that began in 2014-15 peaked in 2016-17 at 8.2 per cent. Growth declined thereafter to 7.2 per cent in 2017-18, 6.8 per cent in 2018-19, and further to 4.8 per cent in the first half of 2019-20.

Quarterly data pinpoints growth peaking at 8.1 per cent in Q4 2017-18, followed by six successive quarterly declines, with Q2 2019-20 coming in at 4.5 per cent. The sharpest decline can be dated to Q2 2018-19, when growth fell to 7 per cent, from 8 per cent in