India’s unemployment rate hits 7.78% in February, highest in 4 months: Report

India’s unemployment rose to 7.78% in February, according to data released by the Centre for Monitoring Indian Economy (CMIE) on Monday.

This is the highest since October 2019 and up from 7.16% in January.

According to Reuters, the economy expanded at its slowest pace in more than six years in the last three months of 2019, with analysts predicting further deceleration as the global coronavirus outbreak stifles growth in Asia’s third-largest economy.

In rural area, the unemployment rate increased to 7.37 per cent from 5.97 per cent in the previous month, while in urban area, it fell from 9.70 per cent to 8.65 per cent.

The coronavirus outbreak has brought a large part of the world’s second-largest economy China to a standstill and its impact has been felt across industries.

(With inputs from agencies)