The growth propelled the Indian economy to USD 3.5 trillion and set the stage for achieving the USD 5-trillion target in the next few years
Financial, real estate and professional services grew 7.6 per cent in the March 2023 quarter compared to 9.2 per cent in the year-ago period
New Delhi: India’s economy growth slowed to a four-quarter low of 7.8 per cent in the January-March period, but pushed the annual growth rate for FY24 to 8.2 per cent, mainly on account of good showing by manufacturing, official data showed on Friday.
In the previous 2022-23 fiscal year, the economy grew 7 per cent.
The growth propelled the Indian economy to USD 3.5 trillion and set the stage for achieving the USD 5-trillion target in the next few years.
Former NITI Aayog Vice Chairman Rajiv Kumar, on Friday hailed the GDP growth rate of 8.2 per cent in FY24, which was ”above all estimates and forecasts”. Kumar said this is the third year in which India has grown at over 7 per cent, outpacing all other large economies.
CRISIL Ltd Chief Economist Dharmakirti Joshi said, ”India’s growth continues to surprise on the upside. Despite a poor showing by agriculture, provisional estimates peg India’s GDP growth for fiscal 2024 at 8.2 per cent. This beats the 7.6 per cent growth estimated by National Statistical Office (NSO) in February.
China has registered an economic growth of 5.3 per cent in the first three months of 2024.
The economic expansion was recorded at 7.8 per cent during the January-March 2024, while it was 8.6 per cent in October-December 2023 and 8.1 per cent in July-September 2023.
The growth was 8.2 per cent in April-June 2023, as per data released by the National Statistical Office (NSO).
The GDP grew 6.2 per cent in the January-March quarter of 2022-23.
The NSO, in its second advance estimate released in February, had projected the GDP growth for 2022-23 at 7.7 per cent.
According to the NSO data, real GDP, or GDP at constant prices, is estimated to attain a level of Rs 173.82 lakh crore in 2023-24, against the first revised estimates (FRE) of GDP for 2022-23 of Rs 160.71 lakh crore.
”The growth rate in real GDP during 2023-24 is estimated at 8.2 per cent as compared to 7.0 per cent in 2022-23,” it stated.
Nominal GDP or GDP at current prices is estimated to attain a level of Rs 295.36 lakh crore in 2023-24, against Rs 269.50 lakh crore in 2022-23, showing a growth rate of 9.6 per cent, it added.
The real GDP in the March quarter of 2023-24 is estimated at Rs 47.24 lakh crore, against Rs 43.84 lakh crore a year earlier, showing a growth rate of 7.8 per cent.
Nominal GDP, or GDP at current prices in the March quarter of 2023-24, is estimated at Rs 78.28 lakh crore, against Rs 71.23 lakh crore in the year-ago period, showing a growth rate of 9.9 per cent.
The real GVA (gross value added) is estimated at Rs 158.74 lakh crore in 2023-24, against the FRE for 2022-23 of Rs 148.05 lakh crore, registering a growth rate of 7.2 per cent as compared to 6.7 pe cent in 2022-23.
The GVA growth in the manufacturing sector accelerated to 8.9 per cent in the March quarter against 0.9 per cent a year ago.
GVA growth in mining was 4.3 per cent in the fourth quarter compared to 2.9 per cent in the same quarter of the previous fiscal.
Construction grew 8.7 per cent in the quarter, up from 7.4 per cent in the corresponding period of 2022-23.
The agriculture sector growth decelerated to 0.6 per cent from 7.6 per cent.
The electricity, gas, water supply, and other utility services segment grew 7.7 per cent during the fourth quarter from 7.3 per cent in the year-ago period.
GVA growth in the services sector — trade, hotel, transport, communication and services related to broadcasting — was 5.1 per cent in the fourth quarter against a growth of 7 per cent a year ago.
Financial, real estate and professional services grew 7.6 per cent in the March 2023 quarter compared to 9.2 per cent in the year-ago period.
Public administration, defence and other services posted 7.8 per cent growth in the quarter against 4.7 per cent expansion in the same quarter a year ago.
UNEVEN RECOVERY, HIGH UNEMPLOYMENT
Despite mouth-watering growth numbers, India’s consumer spending and rural growth remain tepid.
Farm output grew by just 0.6% in the March quarter while consumer spending, which accounts for about 60% of the economy, rose 4%, low by Indian standards. Some economists say the economy needs to grow at a faster pace and for the benefits to percolate to poorer sections of society.
Raghuram Rajan, former governor of the Reserve Bank of India, said in an interview earlier this week India’s economy needs to grow by around 9%-10% annually for next couple of decades to create good jobs for millions of educated young people.
Fiscal Deficit falls to 5.6 %
The central government’s fiscal deficit during 2023-24 at 5.6 per cent of the GDP was better than previous estimates of 5.8 per cent on account of higher revenue realisation and lower expenditure, according to official data released on Friday.
In actual terms, the fiscal deficit — or gap between expenditure and revenue — was Rs 16.53 lakh crore, or 5.63 per cent of the GDP, which grew 8.2 per cent in 2023-24. In the revised estimate for 2023-24, the government had in the interim Budget presented in Parliament on February 1 projected the fiscal deficit of Rs 17.34 lakh crore, or 5.8 per cent of the gross domestic product (GDP).
According to the data released by the Controller General of India (CGA), the government’s revenue collection was 101.2 per cent of the revised estimates (RE) presented in the Budget.
Net tax collection was Rs 23.26 lakh crore in the financial year ending March 2024.