India’s economy grew 6.1% in the January-March quarter from a year earlier, accelerating from 4.4% in the previous quarter, government data showed on Wednesday. The National Statistical Office (NSO), under the ministry of Statistics and Programme Implementation, announced that the GDP in the last quarter of the financial year 2022-23 is estimated at ₹43.62 lakh crore, as against ₹41.12 lakh crore in the previous year’s final quarter, showing a growth of 6.1 per cent.
It also declared that the real GDP in the year 2022-23 is estimated to attain a level of ₹160.06 lakh crore, as against the GDP for the year 2021-22 of ₹149.26 lakh crore, showing a growth of 7.2 per cent as compared to 9.1 per cent in 2021-22. The Centre’s fiscal deficit, meanwhile, narrowed to 6.4 per cent of the GDP in 2022-23 from 6.71 per cent in FY22, nearly 99% of the revised annual estimate, the Controller General of Accounts (CGA) said unveiling the revenue-expenditure data of the Union government for 2022-23.
India has targeted a budget deficit of 5.9% for the fiscal year that started April 1.
“Higher than budgeted dividend surplus transfer of 874.2 billion rupees from the Reserve Bank of India is likely to provide some cushion to meet any undershooting in other revenues streams or overshooting in expenses, relative to respective budget estimates,” said Aditi Nayar, an economist at ICRA.
In the March quarter, India’s manufacturing sector output rose 4.5% on-year, compared to 1.1% contraction in the previous quarter while farm output rose 5.5% compared to 3.7% growth in the same period.
