From January to March, India’s economy grew by 1.6% year-on-year, indicating that the country’s economic activity was steadily recovering before the second wave of coronavirus infection in April.

From October to December last year, after experiencing severe blockades, Indians began to cautiously venture into the traditional festival season, and this expansion followed.

“The overall figures do indicate a steady recovery in demand,” the government’s chief economic adviser KV Subramanian said after the data was released on Monday. But Subramanian admitted that “some of the gathering momentum was affected by the second wave of pandemic.” With the surge in cases again, at least 170,000 people have died in the past two months.

For the entire fiscal year from April 2020 to March 2021, India’s GDP contracted by 7.3%, the worst performance in four years. Nevertheless, after last year’s highly restrictive lockdown measures led to a 24% contraction of economic output between April 2020 and June 2020, the decline was not as severe as some people feared.

From September 2020 to the end of February, the number of new Covid-19 infections per day has steadily declined, promoting a recovery in social and economic activity, because it is hoped that India has already experienced the worst virus.

“Before the second wave hits, the economy is returning to normal,” said Aurodeep Nandi, an Indian economist at Nomura Securities, Bank of Japan.

The growth from January to March was driven by government consumption growth of 28% year-on-year and investment growth of 10.9%. However, the growth of private consumption was restrained, with a year-on-year increase of 2.7%.

Construction activity also rebounded this quarter, up 14% year-on-year; manufacturing, up 7%; and agriculture, up 3.1%.

But just as the government of Prime Minister Narendra Modi announced its victory over the virus, the second wave of the epidemic broke out. put up By the beginning of April, hospitals in major cities in India were full of critically ill patients.

Large areas of the country are subject to new restrictions, and the number of new cases per day has fallen sharply.Businessmen and analysts said that this year’s Partial blockade Compared with the hastily implemented blockade last year, it was not as serious and there was no better plan. At that time, all operations and economic activities were suspended with four hours’ notice.

Capital Investment’s Indian economist Shilan Shah wrote in a research report: “The damage caused by this round of restrictions is not as severe as last year. India seems to have passed the most severe period of the latest epidemic.”

India’s largest companies, such as Tata Group and Reliance Industries, are actively working to vaccinate their employees. New Delhi’s policy allows 25% of the country’s vaccine production to be sold to private hospitals and then resold to corporate sectors and others that require vaccinations. Other companies. Ability to pay.

Analysts predict that India’s improved vaccination and strong global growth will help promote a strong economic recovery in the third quarter of this year.