Back‘Bright spot in global economy’: India's GDP has touched $3.75 trillion-mark in 2023, says Nirmala Sitharaman
At current prices, India's GDP ranks above the UK ($3,159 billion), France ($2,924 billion), Canada ($2,089 billion), Russia ($1,840 billion), and Australia ($1,550 billion) at current prices.
PremiumIndia's gross domestic product (GDP) has touched the $3.75 trillion-mark in 2023 so far from around $2 trillion in 2014, said finance minister Nirmala Sitharaman on June 12. FM Sitharaman has called India a ‘bright spot’ in the global economy, highlighting its position as the fifth largest economy in the world. At current prices, India's GDP ranks above the UK ($3,159 billion), France ($2,924 billion), Canada ($2,089 billion), Russia ($1,840 billion), and Australia ($1,550 billion) at current prices.
Last year, India surpassed UK to become the fifth largest economy and is now only behind US ($26,854 billion), China ($19,374 billion), Japan ($4,410 billion), and Germany ($4,309 billion) according to projections by the International Monetary Fund (IMF).
Recent government data revealed that India's GDP grew by 6.1 per cent in the fourth quarter of fiscal year 2022-23 beating Street estimates. For the entire fiscal 2022-23, the growth rate came in at 7.2 per cent underscoring the country's economic resilience amid geopolitical conflicts and global headwinds.
"India's GDP has reached $3.75 trillion in 2023, from around $2 trillion in 2014; moving from 10th largest to 5th largest economy in the world. India is now being called a Bright Spot in the global economy,'' tweeted Nirmala Sitharaman's office.
Additionally, Chief Economic Advisor Dr V Anantha Nageswaran also lauded the 7.2 per cent growth recorded in the last fiscal and said that 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.’
“Private consumption has caught up with the pre-pandemic trend. It is almost as though the pandemic did not happen hurting consumption of households. The catch up has been swift. Of course, mainly driven by urban consumption," said CEA Nageswaran.
Recently, ratings agency Moody's estimated the Indian economy to clock a 6-6.3 per cent growth in the April-June quarter, while also flagging risks of fiscal slippage arising from weaker-than-expected government revenues in the current fiscal. In an interview with news agency PTI, Moody's Investors Service Associate Managing Director Gene Fang said India has a relatively high level of general government debt at around 81.8 per cent of GDP for 2022-23, and low debt affordability.
Also Read: India's GDP expected to clock 6-6.3% growth in June quarter: Moody's
India, he said, has a high growth potential and its credit strengths include a stable domestic financing base for government debt, as well as a sound external position. "We expect India's growth to come in around 6-6.3 per cent in the first quarter of the current fiscal year, which remains relatively flat from the 6.1 per cent recorded in the final quarter of fiscal 2022-23," Fang said.
"As the government balances the commitment to longer-term fiscal sustainability against its more immediate priority of supporting the economy amid high inflation and weak global demand, and ahead of general elections due by May 2024, we expect some risks of fiscal slippage arising from possibly weaker-than-expected government revenues," added Fang.
Moody's growth estimate is lower than the 8 per cent projection for the first quarter made by the Reserve Bank of India (RBI) last week while unveiling the second monetary policy (MPC) review for the fiscal 2023-24.
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