India's GDP growth slows down to 4.4% in December quarter

India’s gross domestic product (GDP) grew at an annual 4.4 per cent in the October-December period — in line with an RBI estimate, according to data released by the Ministry of Statistics and Programme Implementation (MosPI) on Tuesday. The country's GDP expanded 6.3 per cent in the previous quarter.

According to Zee Business research, India's GDP growth was pegged at an annual 4.6 per cent for the third quarter of the current financial year. 

"Real GDP or Gross Domestic Product (GDP) at Constant (2011-12) Prices in the year 2022-23 is estimated to attain a level of  Rs.159.71 lakh crore, as against the First Revised Estimate of GDP for the year 2021-22 of Rs 149.26 lakh crore. The growth in GDP during 2022-23 is estimated at 7.0 percent as compared to that of 9.1 percent in 2021-22," said an official release.

India had recorded growth of 6.3 per cent in GDP for the quarter ended September 2022.

The GDP data comes at a time when the RBI and other major central banks have the Herculean task of taming red-hot inflation without hurting economic growth. The RBI sees GDP growth for the full year coming in at 6.8 per cent. 

An official estimate had predicted India's economic growth at 4.4 per cent in the current quarter, and an average six per cent in the next financial year.

Many economists had predicted a slowdown in India's economic growth for the third quarter in a row due to the series of interest rate hikes.

"The lower-than-expected quarterly GDP numbers have been muddled amid sharp data revisions, usually seen with the release of this print each year. We had seen the same magnitude of revisions in the past two years, which were affected by COVID disruptions," said Madhavi Arora, Lead Economist at Emkay Global. 

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