India's GDP growing at a robust pace despite global uncertainties: Economist

Mumbai, Aug 29 (IANS) Despite global uncertainties and tariff concerns, the Indian economy is growing at a robust pace and the latest GDP growth figures are a shining example of that, an economist said on Friday.

India’s GDP growth accelerated to a robust 7.8 per cent in the first quarter (April-June) of the current financial year compared to the growth of 6.5 per cent during same quarter of FY 2024-25, official figures released by the Ministry of Statistics showed.

“Comparing it to the last quarter, which was 6.5 per cent, this growth clearly reflects how robustly the Indian economy is advancing, both domestically and globally,” economist Prabhat Ranjan told IANS.

“The country has made significant strides in the last 11 years under the Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s government. The government has exercised strong control over expenditure and the target of a five trillion-dollar economy is advancing strongly and steadily,” he mentioned.

The government’s final consumption expenditure (GFCE) registered an increase of 9.7 per cent growth rate in nominal terms during Q1 of FY 2025-26, compared to the growth rate of 4 in Q1 of FY 2024-25.

Apart from the strong performance of the agriculture sector, the massive investments by the government in big ticket infrastructure projects such the highways, railways, ports and airports have helped to drive up the growth rate as India continues to be the fastest growing economy amid the global slowdown.

The growth rate in the April-June quarter has turned out be higher than 6.5 per cent projected by the RBI for the quarter.

The RBI has retained its forecast for India’s GDP growth at 6.5 per cent for 2025-26, despite global uncertainties, as it expects strong rural demand on the back of a good monsoon and robust government expenditure on big ticket infrastructure projects to propel growth.

Meanwhile, the Central government has received Rs 10,95,209 crore from April to July of the current financial year, which comprises 31.3 per cent of the corresponding budget estimates (BE) for 2025-26, according to data released by the Finance Ministry.

—IANS

na/