India's economy expanded by a robust 7.8% in the October-December quarter of the current financial year, as per the first set of data released by the government under the revamped framework for calculating national output.
The GDP growth exceeded the consensus estimate of 7.6%, projected by economists tracked by Bloomberg. India remained one of the fastest growing major economies of the world despite trade tensions and geopolitical headwinds.
The government has shifted the GDP base year to 2022-23 from 2011-12, to account for changing production and demand patterns within the economy. Also, it shared revised advanced estimates, which pegged the FY26 GDP growth at 7.6%, as against the previous projection of 7.4%.
Also, the Economic Survey's projection for FY27 has been revised upwards to 7%-7.4% under the new series from 6.8%-7.2% under the old series, Chief Economic Advisor V Anantha Nageswaran informed in a press briefing.
In the second quarter of FY26, the economy had expanded by 8.2% despite the US tariffs that were as high as 50% on Indian imports.
"As per projections, India is on track to cross $4-trillion GDP mark in 2026-27," the CEA added.
Notably, lower inflation kept the gap between nominal and real growth rates narrow. The nominal GDP grew 8.9% during the December quarter.
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The gross value added (GVA), calculated as the value of output minus the value of the intermediate goods and raw materials, remained steady at 7.8%. The secondary or the industrial sector saw the sturdiest growth at constant prices, with GVA at 9.1% compared to 8% in the year-ago period.
Manufacturing growth expanded to 11.5% from 9.3%, growth in construction remained steady at 7.1%, whereas growth in electricity, water supply, gas, and other utilities narrowed to 1.5% from 2.9% in the corresponding period of last year.
There was a noticeable slowdown in the primary sector, dragged by agricultural activities along with mining and quarrying. The growth saw a sharp decline to 2.6% from the earlier 4.5%.
Agriculture activities grew 2.4%, slowing down from 4.2%, while mining saw a dip to 4.1% from a robust 11.7% growth in the year-ago period.
In terms of expenditure components, private final consumption grew 7.7% in constant prices from 5.8% in the year-ago period, whereas government final expenditure remained steady at 6.6%, and gross fixed capital formation stood at 7.1%.
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