India GDP Data: India’s GDP grows at 13.5% in Q1 of FY23 | India Business News – Times of India

NEW DELHI: The gross domestic product (GDP) for first quarter ended June 30 came in at 13.5%, data released by the government showed on Wednesday.
The period from April to June was marred by geopolitical crisis as a result of Russia’s invasion of Ukraine. Besides, the impact of heatwave on crop output, elevated commodity prices or inflation also brought down consumer sentiments.
The last time India’s GDP achieved higher annual growth was in April-June 2021, when it was 20.1% higher than the pandemic-depressed level of a year before.
So, the base effect for this year’s Q1 data remains high.
Quick Edit | GDP: A mixed performance in the April-June quarter
In the previous quarter, January-March 2022, GDP grew by 4.1%.

Manufacturing grew to 6.5% growth after a 0.2% contraction in the previous quarter while the construction sector grew 16.8% after 2% growth in the previous quarter, data showed.
The economy is also enduring inflation pressure from a weak rupee, which for months has been trading close to 80 to the US dollar, a level the central bank has been defending in currency markets by selling dollar reserves.
Retail inflation has been running above the top of the Reserve Bank of India’s (RBI) tolerance band of 2-6% all year and is set to do so for the rest of 2022.
Since May, RBI has hiked key lending rates 3 times, totaling 140 basis points, and is expected to take the repo rate to 6% by end-Q1 2023.
However, latest World Economic Outlook released by the International Monetary Fund (IMF) shows India will retain its fastest growing major economy tag for the current fiscal year and the next, even amid global headwinds. In other words, India economy is better placed even amid gloomy outlook.
The central bank faced twin challenges of whether to support economic growth or curb the soaring inflation. And rightly enough, it chose the latter.
The government is continuously taking steps and engaging with the RBI to bring down inflation.
At present, almost all major central banks over the world are racing to hike interest rates that had been pulled to lowest levels in last 2 years owing to the pandemic.