By Eric Bellman 

NEW DELHI -- The coronavirus pandemic has strangled one of the most powerful engines of economic growth in the world: India's 1.3 billion consumers.

The country's gross domestic product shrank 7.5% last quarter compared with a year earlier, India said Friday, as Covid-19 has transformed the world's fastest-growing economy into one of the world's fastest contracting.

With more than 9.3 million people infected and 135,000 killed by the virus, India has been one of the world's hardest hit by the pandemic. Even after the South Asian nation started ending the world's largest lockdown in stages from May, people have been staying home, conserving their rupees and riding out the storm.

India's economy has been hammered by the pandemic, with the latest GDP data marking the first time in decades that the country's growth has contracted for two consecutive quarters.

Vibhuti Agarwal contributed to this article.

Write to Eric Bellman at eric.bellman@wsj.com

 

(END) Dow Jones Newswires

November 27, 2020 07:43 ET (12:43 GMT)

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