New Delhi, September 16: With Indian economy continuing to face the brunt of a slowdown, Reserve Bank of India (RBI) Governor Shaktikanta Das has admitted that the rate at which the gross domestic product (GDP) is growing is way worse than predicted. His remarks, to a TV news channel, comes days after a mere 5 per cent GDP growth was clocked in the first quarter of financial year 2019-20. India's GDP Growth to Remain at 5.7% in FY-2020, Predicts HSBC Expert.

"Growth numbers look much worse than predicted," Das told CNBC TV 18, as he pointed out that the GDP should accelerate in the months to come to achieve the targeted rate of annual growth. Notably, the central bank, in the last monetary policy committee (MPC), has lowered the GDP growth forecast for FY19-20 to 6.9 per cent.

This was the third consecutive revision by the RBI, after first predicting the economy to grow at 7.4 per cent this fiscal, followed by a revision to 7.2 per cent. The central bank, in the MPC meeting in August, decided to further lower the prediction to 6.9 per cent.

Here's What Shaktikanta Das Said:

In the numbers released for April-June quarter, the Central Statistics Office (CSO) revealed that the economy has struggled to grow at mere 5 per cent in Q1, as compared to 5.8 per cent in the same period last year. The growth in eight core sectors had decelerated to 0.2 per cent in June, as compared to 7.3 per cent in the same month last year.

In order to improve the state of economy, Finance Minister Nirmala Sitharaman announced a spree of measures on Saturday, which included an investment upto Rs 20,000 crore in affordable housing sector. The beneficiaries of the investment would be units which are awaiting the last-mile funding.

(The above story first appeared on LatestLY on Sep 16, 2019 05:01 PM IST. For more news and updates on politics, world, sports, entertainment and lifestyle, log on to our website latestly.com).