On Monday many were startled as data from the National Statistical Office showed that India's GDP shrank by 23.9% in the April-June period of this year. As the coronavirus pandemic batters an already slowing economy, this incidentally is the steepest ever decline.
"GDP at Constant (2011-12) Prices in Q1 of 2020-21 is estimated at Rs 26.90 lakh crore, as against Rs 35.35 lakh crore in Q1 of 2019-20, showing a contraction of 23.9 percent as compared to 5.2 percent growth in Q1 2019-20. Quarterly GVA at Basic Price at Constant (2011-12) Prices for Q1 of 2020-21 is estimated at Rs 25.53 lakh crore, as against Rs 33.08 lakh crore in Q1 of 2019-20, showing a contraction of 22.8 percent," the Ministry of Statistics and Program Implementation (MOPSI) said in a press note.
And while many have cited the pandemic and consequent lockdowns that had forced most businesses to shut down for weeks, we took this as an opportunity to look back at the state of the economy over the past few years. More specifically, we looked at how the GDP has been under Prime Minister Manmohan Singh and Prime Minister Narendra Modi.
Now it must be mentioned that this is not the GDP of India in 2020.This is merely the data from the first quarter of the financial year (from April 2020 to June 2020). Additionally, while the GDP is currently tabulated using Constant (2011-12) Prices, this was not the case earlier. Thus, the numbers have to be adjusted accordingly. The MOPSI had earlier released details regarding the same, re-estimating the data from earlier years.
If this seems far too complicated, let us simplify things a bit using data from the World Bank to track the annual GDP growth percentage under Prime Ministers Manmohan Singh (2004 to 2014) and Narendra Modi (2014-present).
According to the data available on the World Bank's website, the GDP of India grew by 7.923% in 2004 and again by 7.923% in 2005.
In 2006 the GDP grew by 8.061% and in 2007, it grew by 7.661%.
2008 was perhaps one of the worst affected years in this regard, with the GDP recording an annual growth percentage of 3.087. This incidentally was the year of the global financial crisis.
It soon improved however, recording a GDP growth of 7.862% in 2009. This rose to 8.498 in 2010.
In 2011 the GDP grew by 5.241%. And in 2012, it grew by 5.456%.
In 2013, the GDP recorded an annual growth of 6.386%.
In 2014, the GDP grew by 7.41%, followed by 7.996 in 2015 and 8.256% in 2016.
Since then however, things have gone on a decline of sorts. The GDP grew by 7.044% in 2017, and by 6.12% in 2018. It grew by 5.024 in 2019, and has grown by -23.9% in the first quarter of 2020.
