New Delhi: The V-shaped recovery in the first quarter of 2021-22, despite the brutal second wave of the coronavirus pandemic, is a testimony to India''s strong macroeconomic fundamentals, according to the Finance Ministry. In its latest Monthly Economic Review, the Finance Ministry also expressed concern over high incidence of COVID-19 cases in Kerala and Maharashtra and underlined the need for strengthening pandemic control and management in these
two states.
The Indian economy grew by 20.1 per cent in the first quarter of the current financial year reaffirming, "India's resilient V-shaped recovery despite an intense second wave," Finance Ministry said.
Hit hard by the coronavirus pandemic, the economy had dipped by 24.4 per cent during the first quarter of the previous fiscal.
Going forward, the report said the agriculture sector continues to offer comfortable prospects with Kharif sowing at 101 per cent of normal levels as on September 3, despite a 9 per cent deficient monsoon so far in the year.
Record-high paddy procurement and increasing tractor sales augur well for strengthened rural demand in the coming months, it said, adding, Industry is steadily gaining lost ground with June''s IIP witnessing a broad-based growth, having recovered close to 95 per cent of pre-pandemic levels of June 2019.