GDP

·         On May 30, 2008 FM Chidambaram revealed that backed by robust agricultural growth GDP growth has touched 9 pc from 8.7 pc estimated earlier… upward revision in the GDP growth rate is mainly on account of the revision made in the estimated production of agricultural crops.

·         The finance minister said the growth rate in 2007-08 of 9 per cent was a matter of satisfaction and should lead to better fiscal indicators, but cautioned that the current fiscal year would be more difficult.

·         However, there are concerns of a sharp slowdown in manufacturing growth in the fourth quarter in March.

Mission IAS’2009

·         The agricultural and allied activities grew by 4.5 per cent, compared to earlier estimates of 2.6 per cent, while the manufacturing sector growth has been lowered to 8.8 per cent from 9.4 per cent.

·         The economy grew at 8.8 per cent in the March quarter, beating forecasts and holding a steady pace in the second half of the fiscal year despite earlier monetary policy tightening.

·         It was the third successive fiscal year that the country's economy has grown at 9 per cent or above.

·         Farm output grew by 2.9 per cent in the March quarter compared with upwardly revised annual 6 per cent in the prior three months. Manufacturing sector grew by 5.8 percent in the quarter, slowing from 9.6 per cent in the December quarter, while construction growth jumped to 12.6 per cent from 7.1 per cent in the December period.

·         Services sector such as trade, hotels, transport and communications showed robust annual expansion of 12.4 per cent in the three months to March after growing 11.5 per cent in the prior three months.

·         The gross domestic product (GDP) or gross domestic income (GDI) is one of the measures of national income and output for a given country's economy. GDP is defined as the total market value of all final goods and services produced within the country in a given period of time (usually a calendar year). It is also considered the sum of value added at every stage of production (the intermediate stages) of all final goods and services produced within a country in a given period of time, and it is given a money value.

·         The most common approach to measuring and understanding GDP is the expenditure method:

·         GDP = consumption + gross investment + government spending + (exports − imports),