India’s economy showed a historic decline of 23.9 percent in the second quarter compared to a year earlier. The Indian economy, one of the largest in Asia, was hit hard by the outbreak of the coronavirus and the extensive quarantine measures against the pandemic that paralysed much of public life.

It is the strongest downturn since the beginning of the quarterly measurements in 1996, according to the GoI. In addition, the figure was significantly worse than expected, because economists had estimated an average minus of 18 per cent.

In almost all sectors of the economy, things went badly, such as construction, mining, trade, industry, tourism and the financial sector. Only agriculture showed some growth. India is now on course for the first annual contraction of the economy in more than 40 years. In order to stimulate the economy, the Indian Central Bank has reduced interest rates several times this year and the government announced support packages.

In the meantime, India is becoming an epicentre for new Coronation settings. On Sunday, more than 78,000 new infections were reported. The total number of infections in the country with more than 1.3 billion population is approaching 4 million.