Indian GDP Takes Second Dip

Indian GDP grew at record speed in Q1 of 2021/22 on a year-over-year basis, but still took a second coronavirus dip.

Despite GDP growing by 20.1 percent between Q1 of 2020/21 and Q1 of 2021/22, the absolute GDP of India stood at 32.38 lakh crore rupees ($443.8 billion) in the latest quarter, marking another dip for national accounts. Both first quarters of this and last fiscal year saw serious waves of coronavirus infections in India and this spring's economic result only looks good opposite the even more dismal Q1 of last year.

India's coronavirus crash of 2020 had been one of the worst among major economies, with the U.S. economy for example contracting 9.5 percent and 2.9 percent on a comparable basis in the June and September quarters, compared with India's -24.4 percent and -7.4 percent. India had gone into a coronavirus-related lockdown at the end of March - later than many other Asian and European nations - so the effects of the stay-at-home order became fully visible in the quarter ending in June 2020.

While most other major world economy marked a third quarter of recession, India returned to growth in year-over-year terms in the quarters ending December 2020 (+0.5 percent) and March 2021 (+1.6 percent). With the devastating second wave between April and May of 2021, the June quarter of this fiscal year disappointed once more despite the illusion of growth.