The Union Finance Minister Arun Jaitley said that the deceleration trend in overall growth, which was witnessed since the First Quarter of last Fiscal Year, has been now reversed. The Finance Minister was responding to the real GDP growth data for the Second Quarter of Fiscal Year 2017-18 which was released here by the CSO. As per the data, the real GDP growth is estimated at 6.3 percent, a substantial increase from 5.7 percent in the first quarter. Real GVA growth has shown a similar increase from 5.6 percent in the first quarter to 6.1 percent in the second quarter, despite a deceleration in agricultural growth from 2.3 percent in the first quarter to 1.7 percent in the second.

Jaitley further said that 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.

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.

​The Finance Minister concluded that the economy now seems to have weathered the transitional challenges experienced earlier in the year and appears poised for a durable recovery going forward.