New Delhi: India’s economy, as measured by the Gross Domestic Product (GDP), grew by 7.8 per cent in the April-June 2023 quarter, with five of the eight sectors under consideration witnessing a growth of above 5 per cent.
The data, released Thursday by the Ministry of Statistics and Programme Implementation, however showed that only two sectors — agriculture, and financial, real estate & professional services — grew faster in the first quarter of this financial year than in the same quarter last year.
While the Indian economy’s growth is slower than the 13.1 per cent rise seen in the same quarter of the previous year, it is nearly as high as the 8 per cent that the Reserve Bank of India had predicted earlier this month.
The agriculture sector grew 3.5 per cent in Q1 of this financial year, faster than the 2.4 per cent seen in Q1 of 2022-23. The April-June 2023 growth, however, is slower than the 5.5 per cent growth the sector saw in the January-March 2023 quarter (Q4 of financial year 2022-23).
The financial, real estate and professional services sector grew 12.2 per cent in Q1 2023-24, compared to 8.5 per cent in the first quarter of the previous year, and 7.1 per cent in the fourth quarter of 2022-23.
All other sectors of the economy measured in the GDP calculation, however, slowed down this year as compared to the same period last year.
The manufacturing sector saw a 4.7 per cent growth in the first quarter of this year, down from 6.1 per cent in the same period last year, and only a little faster than the 4.5 per cent in the fourth quarter of 2022-23.
“Manufacturing growth at 4.7 per cent should be viewed more from the point of view of lower performance of the unorganised sector as profit growth and hence value addition has been high for the corporate sector which gets included here,” Madan Sabnavis, chief economist at Bank of Baroda said in a note following the release of the data.
The construction sector, a major employer, saw growth slowing to 7.9 per cent in Q1 2023-24 from 16 per cent in the first quarter of last year. This is slower than the 10.4 per cent growth recorded in the January-March 2023 period as well.
The ‘trade, hotels, transport, communications and services related to broadcasting’ grouping of sectors saw strong growth of 9.2 per cent in Q1 of this financial year, albeit slower than the blistering 25.7 per cent growth seen in the first quarter of the last financial year.
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