Nirmala Sitharaman’s projection for India’s GDP: ‘7.4% economic growth in current, next fiscal’

India’s gross domestic product (GDP) would grow at 7.4% in the current fiscal (financial year 2022-23) and continue at the same level in the next fiscal as well, Union finance minister Nirmala Sitharaman projected on Friday.

“Our own estimates have also shown based on the developments, that we are definitely at that range…7.4%, and that level would continue even next year,” Sitharaman said in her speech at the ‘Financial Express: India’s Best Bank Awards 2022’ in New Delhi.

“The International Monetary Fund (IMF) and the World Bank have both forecast that India’s growth rate would be the fastest for the next two fiscal years, and their estimates are in sync with those of the Reserve Bank of India as well,” she added.

The finance minister’s projection for the present and upcoming fiscal came months after the National Statistical Office (NSO) released GDP figures for the fourth quarter of 2021-22. The numbers, issued on May 31, showed that the country’s economic growth or GDP slipped to 4.1% in the said quarter, while the annual growth was recorded at 8.7%.

Meanwhile, continuing her speech, Sitharaman also warned against throwing caution to the winds, saying that this was because of the current global scenario, which, she said, ‘continues to be challenging’.

The senior Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) member further projected difficulties for the export sector with the slowing down of the global growth, saying that the central government would work with such entities to ‘face the headwinds’.