After a slump of 24 percent in the previous quarter
India's economy is back on a slight growth path after the corona-related slump. The gross domestic product (GDP) of the largest democracy in the world increased by 0.4 percent between October and December compared to the same quarter of the previous year, said the country's statistics office.
Between April and June 2020, economic output slumped by 24 percent within a year. That was the sharpest drop for the second most populous country since quarterly data began to be published in 1996.
In the spring, an initially strict lockdown brought economic activity to a virtual standstill and made millions of people unemployed. The country later loosened its corona measures to a large extent – in the hope of getting the economy going again.
The country with a population of 1.3 billion has the second highest known corona cases after the USA in absolute numbers. Until recently, the corona numbers were relatively low. Around 10,000 new infections were recorded every day, while at peak times last summer it was almost 100,000 a day. Some experts spoke of some immunity in the population.
However, with the lower number of cases, people's carelessness had increased, and more infectious corona mutants were recently discovered. Recently there has been an increase in the number of cases in some regions, including the metropolis of Mumbai.
India was once one of the fastest growing economies, but was already flagging before the pandemic.
