Economy

December's growth was much faster than a downwardly revised 0.3 per cent year-on-year increase in November, the data showed.

Analysts polled by Reuters had forecast January's annual increase in the consumer price index at 2.48 per cent.

Annual retail inflation in January rose 2.05 per cent, its slowest pace since June 2017, government data showed on Tuesday.

Consumer inflation stood at a final 2.11 per cent in December, the official statement noted.

Petrol, diesel prices today: The fuel rates vary from city to city and from pump to pump depending on local taxes and transportation cost.

The government holds a 9.56% stake in the private sector lender through state-owned Specified Undertaking of the Unit Trust Of India

The government took three banks - Bank of India, Bank of Maharashtra and Oriental Bank of Commerce - out of the PCA list last month.

The fiscal deficit estimate for the current year has been revised upwards to 3.4 per cent of the gross domestic product (GDP).

Last year the Bank of England had warned that a no-deal Brexit could send the pound plunging and trigger a worse recession than the financial crisis.

Trigger for latest downturn in trade ties was India's new rules on e-commerce that restrict the way Amazon and Walmart-backed Flipkart do business.

A Reuters snap poll taken immediately after Thursday's policy review - where the RBI unexpectedly reduced interest rates by 25 basis points - showed the central bank will make the same move next quarter.

On Thursday, the Reserve Bank of India caught financial markets off guard by reducing its key policy rate by 25 basis points to boost growth and as inflation has remained benign.

The repurchase rate was reduced by 25 basis points to 6.25 per cent, a decision predicted by just 11 of 43 economists surveyed by Bloomberg News, with the rest expecting no change.

The RBI's central board meeting will take a call on the amount of interim dividend to be paid by the bank to the government.

The RBI projected GDP growth to be in the range of 7.2-7.4 per cent in the first half of the next fiscal beginning April, and at 7.5 per cent in the third quarter "with risks evenly balanced".