New Delhi: Two days after Finance Minister Nirmala Sitharaman assured that the government is taking every possible step towards the development of the economy, an official data released on Friday evening stated otherwise revealing that India's economic growth has slipped further to hit an over six-year low of 4.5 per cent in July-September quarter of the ongoing fiscal. Reports claim that it is the slowest economic growth rate in six-and-a-half years during the September quarter despite all government efforts to tackle the ongoing slowdown.

This is the fifth successive quarter of decline and the slowest gross domestic product (GDP) growth rate over more than six years. The growth on a year-on-year basis during Q2 2018-19 had stood at 7 per cent. On a sequential basis, the growth rate came lower than the 5 per cent in Q1 of 2019-20, 5.8 per cent in Q4 2018-19, 6.6 per cent in Q3 2018-19.

Gross value added (GVA) growth during the second quarter stood at 4.3 per cent, against 4.9 per cent in April-June this year and 6.9 per cent in the September quarter last year. Even the Gross fixed capital formation at current prices tanked to 1.02 per cent, compared with 11.8 per cent in the same quarter last year.

The Indian economy had grown at 5 per cent in the first quarter of the 2019-20 financial year, which ended in June. The growth was 5.8 per cent in the final quarter of the previous financial year, led by a fall in consumption and investments.

At present, India's economy faces a severe demand slowdown on account of high GST rates, farm distress, stagnant wages and liquidity constraints. This trend of subdued consumption, referred to as slowdown is being cited by economy watchers as the prime reason for the successive fall in GDP growth rate.

Consequently, all the major sector's including automobile, capital goods, banks, consumer durables, FMCG and real estate have been heavily battered. In terms of production, the output of manufacturing, mining and electricity generation among others have plunged causing job losses.

Even the Reserve Bank of India (RBI) had lowered the GDP growth projection for 2019-20 to 6.1 per cent from earlier forecast of 6.9 per cent. The data was released by National Statistical Office (NSO) days after FM Sitharaman claimed that India's economic growth may have come down but the country is not facing recession.

"If you are looking at the economy with a discerning view, you see that growth may have come down but it is not a recession yet, it will not be a recession ever," Sitharaman had said. The minister had also said that every step taken by the government is towards the development of the economy as it has to be given a lot of support.

India's growth outlook has weakened sharply this year, with a crunch that started with the non-banking finance institutions spreading to retail businesses, car-makers, home sales and heavy industries.