NEW DELHI, May 31 (Xinhua) -- India's unemployment rate rose to 6.1 percent in the 2017-18 fiscal year, officials said Friday.
The figure was released by by India's federal ministry of Statistics and Programme Implementation.
The figure is the same leaked to a newspaper earlier this year which said India's unemployment rate stood at a 45-year-high of 6.1 percent in 2017-18.
The data was released a day after Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi was sworn in for the second consecutive term.
The unemployment number comes at a time when another set of data released by government on Friday showed country's economic growth rate known as gross domestic product (GDP) slowed to 5.8 percent during the period from January to March quarter.
According to the media report, the unemployment rate was at its highest level since 1972-73. The report quoted survey saying unemployment among youth in urban areas was higher than in rural areas - 18.7 percent for men and 27.2 percent for women in 2017-18.
