India's GDP growth drops to 5.3 % in third quarter

New Delhi: The growth of India's gross domestic product (GDP) dropped to 5.3 percent in the third quarter ending Dec 31 last year, compared to a growth of 8.9 percent in the same period the previous year.
The economy, usually equated to the GDP, had grown by 7.6 percent in the second quarter of this fiscal.
Growth of the manufacturing sector fell 0.2 percent for the third quarter compared to 8.6 percent in the same period, a year ago. The government had earlier estimated the economy would grow by around 7 percent in 2008-09. The mining sector grew by 5.3 percent as compared to 4.3 percent in the same period last year.