New Delhi, Aug 31 - India's economic growth logged a notable acceleration to 6.1 percent for the first quarter of this fiscal from 5.8 percent for the quarter before due to strong showing by various services industries, official data showed Monday.
The growth registered by the farm sector at 2.4 percent and manufacturing at 3.4 percent remained below the overall expansion, showed the data on the country's gross domestic product (GDP) released by the Central Statistical Organisation (CSO) here.
'It is consistent with what we have been maintaining,' said Planning Commission Deputy Chairman Montek Singh Ahluwalia. 'This definitely shows the worst is finally over,' he told reporters here, reacting to the national income numbers.
The best performance was from trade, hotels, transport and communications group, as also the financial services and real estate sectors with an 8.1 percent expansion each, while mining came next with 7.9 percent, followed by construction with 7.1 percent.
'The Indian economy has emerged from the disruption created by the global financial crisis,' said Chandrajit Banerjee, director general of the Confederation of Indian Industry (CII). 'The numbers indicate the economy has bottomed out.'
Sharing similar sentiments, Harsh Pati Singhania, president of the Federation of Indian Chambers of Commerce and Industry (FICCI), said the chamber expected some sectors, especially services, to accelerate their growth in the ensuing months.