The pandemic in data: How Covid-19 has devastated India’s economy
The sharp drop in GDP is the largest in the country’s history – and even that may well underestimate the economic damage experienced by the poorest households. 15 hours ago The children of migrant workers at a bus stop in Ghaziabad on April 20 as the Delhi government ordered a lockdown to prevent the spread of Covid-19. | Adnan Abidi/Reuters
From April to June 2020, India’s GDP dropped by a massive 24.4%. According to the latest national income estimates, in the second quarter of the 2020-’21 financial year (July-September 2020), the economy contracted by a further 7.4%, with the third and fourth quarters (October 2020-March 2021) seeing only a weak recovery, with GDP rising 0.5% and 1.6%, respectively. This means that overall rate of contraction in India was (in real terms, adjusted for inflation) 7.3% for the whole 2020-’21 financial year.