The National Statistics Office (NSO) announced on Friday that the Indian economy is projected to grow by 7.3 percent in the current financial year 2023-24, maintaining its status as the fastest-growing major economy. These are initial estimates for the fiscal year, and subsequent revisions will be influenced by factors such as improved data coverage, actual tax collections, expenditures on subsidies, and data revisions from source agencies.
In the previous financial year 2022-23, India’s economy expanded by 7.2 percent, following a growth of 8.7 percent in 2021-22. The Reserve Bank of India (RBI) had raised its growth forecast for the current fiscal year to 7 percent, up from the earlier estimate of 6.5 percent.
The positive outlook for 2023-24 comes after India reported higher-than-expected growth in the July-September quarter. The country’s GDP grew by 7.6 percent during this period, maintaining its position as the fastest-growing major economy. The growth rate for the April-June quarter was 7.8 percent.
RBI Governor Shaktikanta Das attributed the revision in growth projections to factors such as strong sowing of rabi crops, despite delays in the harvest of kharif crops in some states. The manufacturing sector is gaining strength with easing input cost pressures, and there is an uptick in demand conditions.
The NSO’s estimates also indicate that the manufacturing sector is anticipated to expand by 6.5 percent in 2023-24, compared to 1.3 percent in the preceding fiscal year. Additionally, the construction sector’s output is expected to grow by 10.7 percent, up from 10 percent in the previous year, according to NSO data.