Soumya Kanti Ghosh, the group chief economic adviser at State Bank of India, said he expects the GDP to grow up to 15.7 per cent in the first quarter of 2022-23 with more chances of the final numbers printing in higher, while Aditi Nayar, the chief economist at the rating agency Icra, said the economy will grow much lower at 13 per cent in the June quarter.
While GDP declined by 23.9 per cent in June 2020 due to the first wave of the pandemic, the same had given a higher boost in June 2021 clipping at 20.1 per cent, despite the period being more devastating in terms of loss of lives from the second wave of Covid -19. The Reserve Bank of India-led monetary policy committee in the August 5 policy review projected the economy to grow to 16.2 per cent in the April-June quarter. The high base effect along with the impact of the heat wave on wheat output, geo-political issues and elevated commodity prices on demand/margins will temper the pace of growth in Q1 at 13 per cent, Nayar of Icra said, adding the gross value added to come in at 12.6 per cent.
Icra expects sectoral growth to be driven by the services sector which will log in 17-19 per cent growth, followed by the industry (9-11 per cent). The SBI report said that of the 41 high frequency leading indicators that it tracks, as much as 89 per cent accelerated in Q1 compared to 75 per cent in Q1FY22, indicating strong and broad-based growth momentum. In Q2FY23, leading indicators continue to accelerate with 81 per cent of the indicators, for which data is available showing an uptrend over Q1FY22. Importantly, private final consumption expenditure in real terms had declined significantly by £47.7 billion in Q1FY21 owing to the pandemic recovered by 46 per cent in Q1FY22.
