Finance Minister Nirmala Sitharaman said the lower-than-expected GDP growth in the second quarter was a temporary blip, but acknowledged that July-September was a tough quarter for the country. India posted GDP growth of 5.4% in the second quarter, lower than estimated. The Indian economy had grown by 6.7% in the first quarter.

“At 5.4 percent, the rate in the second quarter is slower than expected. The second quarter of this fiscal year has been a difficult quarter for India and most of the world’s economies .In the last three years, India’s GDP growth rate has averaged 8.3%. It is an excellent number by global standards,” he said in the Lok Sabha on Tuesday.

“India has been the fastest growing major economy in the world and the credit goes to the Indian people and leadership,” he said.

“The dip in growth in the second quarter is only a temporary blip; the economy will see healthy growth in the coming quarters,” Finance Minister Sitharaman said.

Sitharaman was responding to a debate in the lower house on the first batch of supplementary demands for grants. He said India remains the fastest growing economy in the world.

There is no widespread slowdown in the manufacturing sector, he said, adding that half of the sectors in the overall manufacturing basket remain strong.

Talking about inflation, Sitharaman said it is better under control than during the UPA government, when it had touched double digits. Retail inflation between April and October 2024-25 stood at 4.8%, the lowest since the Covid pandemic.

The unemployment rate has also fallen from 6% in 2017-18 to 3.2%.