India's FY23 GDP growth may be over 7.2% when final numbers come in 2026: CEA Nageswaran

Chief Economic Advisor Dr V Anantha Nageswaran lauded the estimated 7.2 per cent real GDP growth in 2022-23 and was confident that the growth will be higher when the final numbers for the fiscal are frozen in early 2026.

"It is efforts of people like you more than the government that gave us 7.2 per cent real GDP growth in FY 23 following the 9.1 per cent in FY 22," he said.

CEA Nageswaran said India's GDP growth estimates are presented six times and ‘the final estimate for FY 23 will actually be with us in January-February 2026.’

According to official data released earlier this week, India's economy grew by 6.1 per cent in the January-March quarter of 2022-23 and annual growth rate was 7.2 per cent.

As per the provisional estimates released by the National Statistical Office (NSO) recently, real GDP growth for 2022-23 stood at 7.2 per cent, higher than the 7 per cent projected earlier.

Nageswaran said this is the first reliable estimate of GDP growth and ‘as more and more data become available, further revision will be for upside from 7.2 per cent.’

The dent in household spending induced by the pandemic and lockdown restrictions is now a thing of the past as private consumption has caught up with the pre-pandemic growth trend, he said.