GDP growth: Impact of note ban, GST behind us, says Jaitley

Finance Minister Arun Jaitley remained optimistic of a higher growth rate in coming quarters.

Addressing a press conference Jaitley said that "the last five quarters had witnessed a downward trend. This marks the reversal of this trend. This also indicates that perhaps the impact of two very significant structural reforms - demonetisation and GST - is behind us and hopefully in coming quarters we can look for an upwards trajectory," he said.

"Last five quarters had witnessed a downward trend, GDP at 6.3% marks the reversal of that trend. The acceleration in growth this quarter has been helped by a rapid growth in manufacturing which increased from 1.2 percent in the first quarter to 7 percent in the Second Quarter. Robust growth of 7.6 percent in electricity and other utilities, and 9.9 percent in trade, transportation and communications also powered this acceleration. Overall, the services sector recorded a growth of 7.1 percent in the second quarter," the Finance Minister said.

He further added that "encouragingly, the rate of growth of gross fixed capital formation has also increased from 1.6 percent in the first quarter to 4.7 percent in the second quarter. Real private consumption growth has broadly held steady at 6.5 percent".

Finance Secretary Hasmukh Adhia said the GDP number may go up when it is finally revised.

India's GDP growth rose to 6.3% in the July-September quarter from a three-year low of 5.7% in the previous one. It has reversed the five quarters of slowing GDP growth giving a big relief to the Narendra Modi government.

According to data from the Central Statistics Office (CSO), the GDP for Q2 stood at Rs 31.66 lakh crore, or a growth of 6.3 per cent.