By posting 7.5% GDP growth for the January-March 2015 period, India has emerged as one of the world’s fastest growing economy, outstripping China’s 7% growth in the same quarter, according to data released by the government on Friday.
India also celebrated faster growth than its larger neighbor in the December quarter, but on Friday the Central Statistics Office sharply revised growth down to 6.6% from 7.5%, further distorting the picture. The sharp downward revision for the previous quarter has fuelled doubts about the accuracy of a new method used to measure economic activity, IBNLive reported Saturday.
Economists were already having a hard time reconciling the headline numbers with dismal corporate earnings, weak industrial activity and an elusive recovery in bank credit.
Full-year growth for the fiscal year ending in March came in at 7.3%, data on Friday showed, up from 6.9% in 2013/14, a tad lower than an official estimate of 7.4%.
Back in December, the government estimated growth for the year would be 5.5% using the old methodology. That would have represented a modest improvement after two successive years of growth below 5% -- the worst in a quarter century.
But the Statistics Office’s reworking of the numbers has transformed India’s official growth pace under Prime Minister Narendra Modi, who made economic reforms a priority during his first year in office.
