Good news for Modi govt: FY16 GDP growth at 7.6%; India now fastest-growing economy in the world

Zee Media Bureau/Rd. Alexander

New Delhi: Retaining its place as the world's fastest-growing major economy, India's economy expanded by 7.6 percent in the financial year 201-16, outpacing China once again.

In fact, in the fourth quarter of the financial year 2016 ended March 31, the economy grew by 7.9 percent.

At this growth rate, India is now officially the fastest-growing economy in the world.

And while the Indian economy grew at 7.9 percent in the fourth quarter of 2015-16, the overall GDP growth of 7.6 percent is a five-year high.

This high growth rate, a government data showed, has been backed mainly by good performance of manufacturing and farm sectors which grew at 9.3 percent and 2.3 percent respectively during the financial year.

It is interesting to note that, in the last quarter of the financial year 2014-15, the Indian economy had grown by 7.5 percent where it had overtaken China.

As per the latest data, the Central Statistic Office (CSO) has also revised the Gross Domestic Product (GDP) growth rate for previous quarters of 2015-16 -- 7.5 percent for April-June, 7.6 percent for July-September and 7.2 percent for October-December.

The growth rate falls in line with the prediction of various agencies which stated that India would grow between 7.5 percent to 7.8 percent in the financial year 2015-16.

Interestingly, the growth percentage also falls in line with the prediction of Finance Minister Arun Jaitley who had estimated earlier this month that the Indian economy in the financial year of 2015-16 would grow at 7.6 percent.

The 7.6 percent growth rate for 2015-16 is the same as projected by the CSO in its advance estimates of national income earlier in February this year.