New Delhi: Annual monsoon season rainfall was below average and less than forecast, with a fourth of the regions including key crop-growing northern states receiving less rain than needed, weather office said on Sunday.

A man covers himself with a plastic sheet as he walks through a street during rain in Kolkata on August 31, 2018.

Rains were 91 percent of the long-term average at the end of the July-September monsoon season, compared with a forecast of 97 percent, marking the fifth straight year in which the weather office has overestimated the likely rainfall.

The monsoon delivers 70 percent of country’s annual rainfall and is the lifeblood of the country’s above Rs.150 lakh crore economy with the farm sector contributing 14 percent of its economic output.

Reuters