India’s GDP grew 4.4% in October-December, down from 6.3% in July-September. (File)
Mumbai:
The obvious slowdown in India’s GDP progress within the October-December quarter has been pushed to a big extent by revisions to previous information, economists mentioned, including that the expansion is evolving on anticipated strains and should not sway the central financial institution to pause price hikes.
India’s GDP grew 4.4% in October-December, down from 6.3% in July-September, and beneath the 4.6% forecast in a Reuters ballot.
The progress for 2021/22 was raised to 9.1% from 8.7% earlier as a part of a daily schedule of revisions. Meanwhile, the contraction in GDP in 2020/21 was revised to five.7% from an estimated drop of 6.6% beforehand.
These revisions led to the next base on which progress for the October-December quarter was measured. Barring a revision, the GDP progress within the third quarter would have been 5.1%
The lower-than-expected progress was led by an upward adjustment within the base 12 months GDP, Pranjul Bhandari, chief India economist at HSBC mentioned, including that the extent of output in comparison with pre-pandemic quarters continued to enhance.
The degree of output on the finish of December 2022 was 11.6% larger than the pre-pandemic 2019 quarter, mentioned Bhandari. This is an enchancment from September, when output was 9.4% above the comparable pre-pandemic quarter, she added.
Citibank’s India economists mentioned the sequential momentum in progress held up within the third quarter, implying the economic system is transferring alongside the trail seen in pre-Covid quarters.
The sequential actual GDP progress of three.5% was larger than the three.3% common progress for Q3 in pre-Covid years, Samiran Chakraborty, chief economist for India at Citi, wrote in a observe.
It “reaffirms our view that progress momentum stays near pre-Covid ranges,” Chakraborty mentioned.
Services outpacing manufacturing exercise, and investments main consumption stay the dominant narrative, economists at QuantEco Research mentioned.
Some segments, particularly non-public consumption and manufacturing, did present weak point even after accounting for information revisions.
Private consumption within the third quarter rose solely 2.1% from a 12 months earlier, a steep fall from the 8.8% progress seen within the second quarter.
Without the revisions, progress in non-public consumption would have been 6%, mentioned V. Anantha Nageswaran, India’s chief financial advisor.
Private consumption progress between December 2019 and 2022 was at 14.8%, in comparison with a 15.2% progress between September 2019 and 2022, HSBC’s Bhandari identified.
Among the important thing sectors, manufacturing shrank 1.1% within the third quarter, following a contraction of three.6% within the earlier three months. The sector would have grown by 3.8% within the third quarter and not using a revision in information, mentioned Nageswaran.
Weakness in manufacturing exercise, nevertheless, has been mirrored in employment information, too. “GDP information displays continued weak point in manufacturing exercise and powerful momentum in development exercise, according to developments in employment information,” Citi’s Chakraborty mentioned.
Most economists don’t see the GDP information swaying the central financial institution away from one other 25 foundation level price hike in April, although at the very least two members of India’s financial coverage committee (MPC) have argued that weak point in progress deserves a pause.
The GDP progress quantity is broadly according to the Reserve Bank of India’s estimates, and is unlikely to shift the central financial institution’s projections materially, mentioned Rahul Bajoria, chief India economist at Barclays.
“Following a set of hawkish minutes and the inflation overshoot in January, we expect that the stability of dangers has tilted in the direction of one other hike. We anticipate a 25 foundation level hike in April with continued dissent within the MPC.”
(Except for the headline, this story has not been edited by NDTV employees and is printed from a syndicated feed.)
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