India’s real gross domestic product slumped to 5.4% in the quarter ending September, the National Statistics Office said on Friday. The growth rate for quarter in the financial year 2023-’24 was 8.1%.

Real gross domestic product is the total value of all goods and services produced by a country in a specific period, adjusted for inflation.

The figure of 5.4% marks India’s slowest real gross domestic product growth in 18 months, or seven quarters, The Hindu reported. The last time growth was as slow was in the quarter ending December 2022, when the gross domestic product rose by just 4.3%.

A 5.4% growth rate is also lower than the projection of 6.5% given by the government earlier this year.

In a statement on Friday, the National Statistics Office, which operates under the Union Ministry of Statistics and Programme Implementation, also noted that India’s real gross value added grew by 5.6% in the quarter ending September.

The gross value added measures the value of goods and services produced in an economy. For the corresponding quarter in the previous financial year, this figure was 7.7%.

The statement noted that “sluggish growth” in the manufacturing and mining sectors, along with a slow pace of government spending and weak private consumption, had dampened economic growth.

As per the statement, manufacturing grew by 2.2% between July and September, down from 7% between April and June. In the same period last financial year, the sector had grown by 14.3%.

The mining and quarrying sector contracted by 0.1% between July and September, compared to 7.2% growth in the preceding quarter and 11.1% growth in the corresponding quarter last financial year.

“Agriculture and allied sector has bounced back by registering a growth rate of 3.5% in Q2 [July to September] of FY 2024-’25 after sub-optimal growth rates ranging from 0.4% to 2.0%, observed during previous four quarters,” the National Statistics Office added.