Economic growth continues to slacken off
India's economic growth slackened further in the last quarter, leaving the emerging market on track for its worst year in a decade. Gross domestic product grew by 5.3 per cent between July and September, compared with 5.5 per cent in the previous three months.
Advisers to Prime Minister Manmohan Singh, right, now expect India's GDP to rise by between 5.5 and 6 per cent this year – the slowest rate since 2002-3. With a downturn stretching into 2014, an election year, Mr Singh and his centre-left Congress party have launched initiatives such as raising subsidised diesel prices and opening up sectors such as supermarkets to foreign players.
Another of the Bric group of emerging economies, Brazil, reported growth of 0.6 per cent in the three months to September compared with the previous quarter – half the rate expected by analysts. Businesses cut their investment by 2 per cent, while consumer spending growth was a sluggish 0.9 per cent, figures showed.
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