The National Council of Applied Economic Research (NCAER) has projected the economy to contract 12.6 per cent in the current financial year (FY21), with the remaining three quarters expected to witness a fall in gross domestic product (GDP). It pegged the GDP fall at 12.7 per cent in the second quarter, 8.6 per cent in the third quarter and 6.2 per cent in the fourth quarter. GDP declined a record 23.9 per cent in the first quarter. NCAER said the key question was how the economy would perform after that. “References to V-shaped recovery obfuscate more than they reveal," it said.