India's GDP growth falls to 4.5% in Q3, P. Chidambaram hopes better days ahead

Trade, hotels, transport and communications segment also witnessed lower pace of growth at 5.1 per cent in the quarter against 6.9 per cent in the same quarter in year ago.

The growth rate of electricity, gas and water supply also dipped to 4.5 per cent in the third quarter, from 7.7 per cent witnessed in the same quarter of 2011-12.

Construction sector expanded by 5.8 per cent in Q3 of 2012-13, as against 6.9 per cent in the year-ago period.

Growth rate of services sector, including insurance and real estate, stood at 7.9 per cent in the third quarter, against 11.4 per cent in same quarter last fiscal.

According to the CSO data, during April-December period of this fiscal manufacturing sector grew by just 1.2 per cent against 3.6 per cent in the same period last fiscal.

In the first nine months of the current fiscal, mining and quarrying marginally recovered to a growth of 0.1 per cent from a contraction in the output by 2.8 per cent.

The farm and allied sectors growth declined to 1.7 per cent in the nine month period under review cent compared to 4.3 per cent a year ago.

Electricity, gas and water supply segment growth plunged to 4.7 per cent in the nine month of the current fiscal compared 7.6 per cent in the same period in 2011-12.

Referring to fiscal deficit, the Finance Minister said that 4.8 per cent target for 2013-14 is unlikely to be breached.

"I have said the 5.3 per cent is the red line that cannot be breached. Likewise 4.8 is the red line for this year that cannot be breached," he said.

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