1. The Gross Domestic Product (GDP) is expected to contract by 8.6 per cent for the July-September period.
2. This means that India will enter into a recession for the first time in history in the first half of this fiscal with two successive quarters of negative growth due to the COVID-19 pandemic.
3. The nationwide lockdown induced by the pandemic, had led to a steep contraction of 23.9 per cent in the GDP for the April-June quarter as compared to the same period a year ago.
4. The RBI has estimated that the economy will contract by 9.5 per cent for the full fiscal year.
5. “India has entered a technical recession in the first half of 2020-21 for the first time in its history with Q2 2020-21 likely to record the second successive quarter of GDP contraction,” as per the article titled ‘Economic Activity Index’, authored by Pankaj Kumar of the Monetary Policy Department.
