GDP growth slows to 6.5% in 2024-25, slowest since the pandemic

Provisional estimates show slowest GDP growth since 2020-21, with agriculture sector leading in Q4 of 2024-25.

While a significant uptick in economic activity in the fourth quarter of financial year 2024-25 pushed GDP growth for the full year to 6.5%, as per the provisional estimates for 2024-25 released by the government on Friday (May 30, 2025), this is the slowest since the pandemic year 2020-21.

As per data released by the Ministry of Statistics and Programme Implementation, real GDP growth in Q4 of 2024-25 accelerated to 7.4%, the fastest quarterly growth in the year. Quarterly GDP growth stood at 6.4% in Q3. Nevertheless, growth in Q4 of 2024-25 was slower than the 8.4% seen in the fourth quarter of the previous financial year.

The agriculture sector continued its strong performance in Q4, leading to a relatively strong showing for the full year. The ‘Agriculture, Livestock, Forestry & Fishing’ sector grew 5.4% in Q4 of the year, up from 0.9% in Q4 of 2023-24. This helped propel the full year’s growth for the sector to 4.6% in the full year 2024-25, up from 2.7% in 2023-24.

The manufacturing sector’s growth stood at 4.8% in Q4 of FY25, the second fastest quarterly growth in the year, on a high base of 11.3% in Q4 of the previous year. The sector grew 4.5% in the full financial year 2024-25, down from 12.3% in 2023-24.

The construction sector returned to double-digit growth of 10.8% in the fourth quarter, the fastest in the year, and faster than the 8.7% seen in Q4 of 2023-24. The sector’s full-year growth stood at 9.4% in 2024-25, down from 10.4% in 2023-24.

Growth in the tertiary sector — a composite of all the services sectors measured — stood at 7.3% in Q4, in line with the growth in Q2 (7.2%) and Q3 (7.4%). Growth in Q4, however, was slower than the 7.8% seen in the fourth quarter of 2023-24. In the full year 2024-25, the tertiary sector grew at 7.2%, lower than the 9% in the previous year.

The data released on Friday also showed that growth in household consumption – as measured by the Private Final Consumption Expenditure (PFCE) figure — quickened to 7.2% in 2024-25 from 5.6% in the previous year.