India's gross domestic product (GDP) growth rate slipped to 4.8 per cent in the fourth quarter of the last financial year as production in the country's three major sectors, viz. agriculture, manufacturing and mining, remained gloomy.

The country ended the entire FY2012-13 at the decade's lowest growth rate of 5 per cent. In the first, second and third quarters of the last financial year, the economy grew at a rate of 5.4 per cent, 5.2 per cent and 4.7 per cent, respectively.

Farming sector grew at a rate of just 1.4 per cent during the January-March quarter, lower than the 2 per cent growth rate recorded in the corresponding quarter of the previous financial year.

Manufacturing output slipped from 2.7 per cent in the fourth quarter of FY2011-12 to 1.0 per cent in the same quarter of FY2012-13; while growth in services sector fell from 11.7 per cent to 8.6 per cent.

Union Finance Minister P Chidambaram said that the growth figures were as per the government's expectations; while Planning Commission Deputy Chairman Montek Singh Ahluwalia said the economy had bottomed out.

Commenting on the figures, Mr. Ahluwalia said, "There is evidence that the economy has bottomed out. But we still don't have evidence of a strong recovery. It is challenging to get to 6 per cent [growth] where last quarter is 4.8 per cent."

The weak data will definitely put more pressure on Congress-led UPA coalition government to take more drastic steps to reinvigorate the ailing economy.