New Delhi, May 31 (Mayank Nigam) Driven primarily by services and farm sectors, India’s gross domestic product (GDP) grew 6.1% year-on-year in January-March quarter (Q4) of financial year 2022-23, as per data released by Ministry of Statistics & Programme Implementation (MoSPI) on Wednesday. The Q4 GDP number came as a pleasant surprise for many policy-watchers as they had expected lower growth. “GDP at constant (2011-12) prices in Q4 2022-23 is estimated at Rs 43.62 lakh crore, as against Rs 41.12 lakh crore in Q4 2021-22, showing a growth of 6.1 percent,” MoSPI said in its official release. Madhavi Arora, Lead Economist, Emkay Global Financial Services said that better than expected GDP print for 4QFY23 is helped by healthier capital formation and more importantly, net exports which appears to be not-a-drag on growth, as usually seen in the cost given India is a net importer. In the January-March quarter of FY23, the manufacturing sector grew at 4.5% while the labour-intensive construction sector grew 10.4% year-on-year.
Farm sector reported 5.5% growth during this period while the services sector grew at 6.9%. Mining and quarrying recorded 4.3% growth during the quarter under review. Commenting on Q4 GDP data, ICRA Chief Economist Aditi Nayar said that the GDP expansion in Q4 FY2023 was appreciably higher than expected, while remaining uneven and confirming the hopes of a sequential pickup in the pace of growth of economic activity to 6.1% from the bottom of 4.5% seen in Q3 FY2023. She further said that FY23 growth exceeded the first advance estimate as it benefitted from the positive surprise for Q4. For the full fiscal year, the GDP grew 7.2% as against the earlier estimate of 7%. “Real GDP or GDP at constant (2011-12) prices in the year 2022-23 is estimated to attain a level of Rs 160.06 lakh crore, as against the First Revised Estimates of GDP for the year 2021-22 of Rs 149.26 lakh crore. The growth in real GDP during 2022-23 is estimated at 7.2 per cent as compared to 9.1 per cent in 2021-22,” said MoSPI.