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2QFY18 real GDP growth in line with estimate
Farm sector weakness to bring GVA growth to sub-6% in 3QFY18
30 November 2017
The Economy Observer
Real GDP growth picked up to 6.3% YoY in 2QFY18, in line with our estimate of 6.4% and up from its three-year low of
5.7% YoY in 1QFY18. Our theme of ‘consumption-driven
to investment-led
’
is finally playing out, as consumption grew
at the slowest pace in two years, while investments grew at the fastest pace in five quarters.
Real GVA growth of 6.1% YoY too was in line with our estimate of 6.2% and much better than 5.6% growth in the
previous two quarters, primarily led by higher manufacturing growth (7% v/s 1.2% in 1QFY18), which entirely offset the
weakness in services (+7.1% YoY in 2QFY18 v/s 8.7% in 1QFY18).
According to the first advance estimates of the Department of Agriculture released in late Sep’17, notwithstanding
normal monsoon, food grains production in the Kharif season is estimated to have declined 2.8% in FY18, marking the
sharpest contraction in eight years. Consequently, we have revised down our forecasts for agricultural activities.
Accordingly, we expect real GVA growth to fall below 6% YoY again in 3QFY18 before picking up to ~6.5% in 4QFY18.
This implies real GVA growth of 6.0% for the full-year FY18, down from our earlier estimate of 6.4%. It also means that
real GDP is likely to grow 6.3% in FY18, down from our earlier estimate of 6.7%.
I. GDP growth highest in three quarters…
Real GDP growth at 6.3%…:
In line with our expectation of 6.4% (and consensus
of 6.4%), real GDP growth came in at 6.3% YoY in 2QFY18, marking its highest
growth in three quarters and recovering from 13-quarter lowest growth of 5.7%
in 1QFY18
(Exhibit 1).
…driven primarily by net exports:
Exhibit 2
shows that while government
consumption expenditure was the biggest drag on GDP growth in 2QFY18
(+4.1% YoY v/s 17.2% in 1QFY18) and private consumption expenditure (PCE)
grew at the slowest pace in eight quarters (at 6.5% YoY), imports grew much
slowly at 7.5% in 2QFY18 v/s 13.4% in 1QFY18. Consequently, net imports
deducted only 1.3 percentage points (pp) from real GDP growth, as against
2.6pp in 1QFY18.
Growth drivers shifting from consumption to investments:
Further, as we have
discussed in
detail,
while consumption growth has eased substantially in
2QFY18, real investments (GFCF + change in inventories) have grown faster.
Consequently, the gap between consumption and investments has narrowed
substantially in 1HFY18
(Exhibit 3).
Without fiscal consumption spending, GDP
growth at 6.6% YoY in 2QFY18 (v/s 4.3% in 1QFY18) was the highest in five
quarters
(Exhibit 4).
II. …and GVA growth also crossed 6%
GVA grows 6.1% YoY in 2QFY18 led by better manufacturing growth:
Growth in
real GVA also picked up from 5.6% YoY in each of the past two quarters to 6.1%
in 2QFY18
(Exhibit 5).
Better GVA growth was largely driven by the
manufacturing sector, which more than offset the weakness in the services
sector
(Exhibit 6).
Nikhil Gupta
– Research analyst
(Nikhil.Gupta@MotilalOswal.com); +91 22 3982 5405
Rahul Agrawal
– Research analyst
(Rahul.Agrawal@motilaloswal.com); +91 22 3982 5445
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