In response to a question in the Lok Sabha, Commerce and Industry Minister Piyush Goyal said that the industrial production of the country has been on a steady decline for the last three years. He said that the country's industrial production was 4.4% in the financial year 2017-18, which fell to 3.8% the next year. Then the rate came down to -0.8% in 2019-20. Simply put, the first coronavirus case was reported on January 30, 2020, but the country's industrial production was already negative at that time. The lockdown and epidemic proved to be the last nail for the economy as industrial production reached -29.2% in the April-July period