The Indian economy performed brilliantly in the last financial year despite adverse global conditions. According to the official data released on Wednesday, the GDP growth rate was better than the estimates. According to the data, the Indian economy grew at a rate of 6.1 per cent in the March quarter, while the economic growth rate for the entire financial year 2022-23 was 7.2 per cent.
The speed of GDP increased so much
The National Statistical Office (NSO) released the official GDP growth rate data on Wednesday evening. As per the data, the Indian economy performed stupendously during the March quarter. Earlier, the GDP growth rate was 4.5 per cent during the December quarter.
Almost all the sectors performed well in the March quarter. While the agriculture sector registered a growth of 5.5 per cent, the same rate was 4.5 per cent for the manufacturing sector.
The government had expressed this hope
Indian economy was expected to perform well in adverse conditions. In the Fiscal Policy Statement released in February 2023, it was said that in the financial year 2022-23, the nominal GDP growth rate could be 15.4 percent on an annual basis. A year ago i.e. in 2021-22, the nominal GDP growth rate was 19.5 percent. At the same time, the Real GDP Growth Rate was estimated to be 7 percent, which was 8.7 percent a year ago.
This was the estimate of the Reserve Bank
Reserve Bank Governor Shaktikanta Das had said in the annual report that the growth rate of the Indian economy could be a little over 7 percent in the last financial year. He had said that out of the High-Frequency Indicators monitored by the Reserve Bank, about 70 had indicated strength. The Central Bank had estimated the GDP growth rate to be 5.1 percent during the March quarter.
Shock from these figures
However, before the GDP figures, India has suffered a setback on the front of industrial production. The rate of growth of eight major industries has decreased slightly in April. On the other hand, the fiscal deficit has been within the range of the government’s estimate.
Fiscal deficit remained so much
Fiscal Deficit figures were released before the GDP figures were released by the NSO. According to statistics, the fiscal deficit of the central government was equal to 6.4 percent of GDP in the last financial year 2022-23. Even in the revised estimates of the Finance Ministry, the fiscal deficit was targeted to remain the same. Releasing the income-expenditure data of the central government for 2022-23, the CGA said that the fiscal deficit in terms of value has been Rs 17,33,131 crore. Finance Minister Nirmala Sitharaman (FM Nirmala Sitharaman) had set a target of limiting the fiscal deficit to 5.9 per cent of GDP in 2023-24 in the General Budget (Budget 2023) presented on February 1.
According to statistics, during the month of April, this deficit has been Rs 1.34 lakh crore, which is equal to 7.5 percent of the target for the whole year. This is more than a year ago i.e. April 2022. In April last year, the fiscal deficit was equal to 4.5 per cent of the target for the whole year.
The growth of industries gave a blow
Talking about industrial production, there has been a slight setback in the month of April. During the month of April, the growth rate of eight core industries was 3.5 percent on an annual basis. The index of these core industries had increased by 3.6 per cent during the month of March. At the same time, during the entire financial year 2022-23, eight major industries grew at the rate of 7.7 percent, the rate of which was 10.4 percent during the year before i.e. 2021-22.
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