With more government expenditure and a boom in the construction industry, India’s economy is expected to continue expanding at the fastest rate in the world, according to the nation’s initial official forecasts.
The Central Statistics Office presented estimates of the gross domestic product on Friday, indicating a quicker growth rate of 7.3% in 2023–24 compared to the Reserve Bank of India’s expectation of 7%. In the previous fiscal year, the GDP grew at a preliminary rate of 7.2%.
The Union Budget is scheduled for February, and Prime Minister Narendra Modi will run for a rare third term in the spring of the following year in a general election. Forecasts of robust growth coincide with the central bank’s six rate hikes since 2022.
As opposed to 7% in the previous fiscal year, the nation’s gross value added—a measure of income that excludes indirect taxes and subsidies—is predicted to increase by 6.9%.
According to data released on Friday, the mining sector is expected to increase by 8.1% this fiscal year compared to 4.6% in 2022–2023; the building sector is expected to rise by double digits at 10.7% this year, up from 10% in the previous fiscal year.
According to the data, the real estate, financial services, and professional services sectors are expected to increase by 8.9%, compared to a growth of 7.1% in 2022–2023. The sector that still employs almost half of the population, agriculture, will grow by 1.8% this year as opposed to 4% the year before. Spending on private final consumption, a gauge of 4.4% in FY24
Private forecasters revised their upward projections as a result of the economy growing significantly faster than anticipated in the September quarter, at 7.6% year over year. This was only slightly less than the 7.8% growth recorded in the previous quarter.
