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MUMBAI: India is likely to receive below-average monsoon rainfall in August after recording average rainfall in July, the weather department said on Friday, raising concerns about crop yields and economic growth in Asia’s third-largest economy.
The monsoon delivers about 70 per cent of annual rains to replenish crucial water sources in the nearly $4-trillion economy, where almost half of farmland lacks irrigation and about half the population earns its livelihood from farming.
Rainfall in August is likely to be below 94pc of the long-period average, Mrutyunjay Mohapatra, director-general of the India Meteorological Department, told a press conference.
Cumulative rainfall in August and September, the second half of the four-month monsoon season, is forecast to be below 94pc of the long-period average, Mohapatra said.
