India sees economy slow-down in 2016-2017: gov't

NEW DELHI -- The Indian government Friday said the country's economy slowed down in 2016-2017, with a nearly 1-percent decline in gross domestic product (GDP) growth as compared to the previous financial year.

Indian Finance Minister Arun Jaitley told the parliament that the GDP growth fell from 8 percent in 2015-2016 to 7.1 percent in 2016-2017.

"Slower growth in 2016-2017 reflects lower growth in industry and services sector. Economic growth of a country depends on a number of factors including structural, external, fiscal and monetary factors," he said.

Experts say the slowdown in the Indian economy in 2016-2017 could be because of Prime Minister Narendra Modi's sudden decision to scrap currency notes of higher denominations in November last year as well as the subsequent tax reforms.

India introduced an unified tax regime, goods and services tax (GST) or one nation, one tax, since mid-2017, barely six to seven months after demonetization.