Despite the ravages inflicted on its people and economy by the rampant COVID-19 pandemic, India is still expected to report an improvement in its GDP of 2.1% for the fourth quarter of the past fiscal year that ended March.

That's the good news. The bad news is this number will be India's weakest Q4 growth since 2012. More bad news: GDP is expected to plunge from April to June (Q1 of the 2020-21 fiscal year) by a massive and unprecedented 45% compared to Q4, estimates Goldman Sachs.

The economy is only expected to grow 1.87% in the 2019-20 fiscal year. And the worst news: India's GDP will be a negative 5% for 2020-21, said Goldman Sachs compared to its earlier prediction of a negative 0.4% growth.

The Q4 GDP estimate by a panel of 52 economists polled by Reuters will be confirmed when the government releases its official economic figures Friday. Other analysts aren't as optimistic as Reuters, however. Singapore's DBS Group predicts GDP to improve by only 1.3% from January to March compared to the same period in 2019.

Government GDP figures for Q4 are expected to be somewhere in between these estimates given the Indian economy has been in annual decline since 2016 when GDP improved 8.26%. The assault by COVID-19 on India's economy is only accelerating this decline.

Analysts said high-frequency data confirm the meager growth for Q4. The Index of Industrial Production (IIP) was down 16.65% in March compared to March 2019 and lower by 10% from February. IIP is a composite indicator used to measure the monthly level of industrial activity in the Indian economy.

Factory activity faltered, diesel consumption plummeted while passenger vehicle sales were slashed almost by half in March.  India's services activity collapsed in April, according to one study. The plunge in consumption of non-essential goods was higher than the slump in investment and industrial activity.

On the external trade front, India's April exports fell by more than 36% while imports declined by over 47%, according to government data.

These high-frequency growth indicators are manifesting broad-based declines across both the demand and the supply sides, according to Sonal Varma, chief economist for India and Asia ex-Japan at Nomura. The bad numbers assailing India's economy prompted Moody's to warn the economic damage due to the lockdown will likely be "extensive and reflect (India's) inherent economic vulnerability and fiscal constraints."

The Indian government under prime minister Narendra Modi has moved to jolt the economy back to life by unleashing a $266 billion stimulus package consisting of both fiscal and monetary measures. This amount is equivalent to some 10% of India's GDP. Economists, however, doubt this amount can make a difference since it hardly includes any government spending that can quickly stimulate the economy.