India’s GDP grew at a rate of 13.5 percent in the April-June quarter in FY23 compared to the previous quarter (Jan-March),  according to the data released by the National Statistical Office (NSO) on Wednesday.

This is the highest growth in a quarter since the GDP grew at 20.1 percent in the April-June quarter of 2021.

However,  13.5 percent of GDP growth is lower than predicted by RBI as well as economists and analysts.

The RBI had pegged the growth rate to be around 16.2 percent in the April-June quarter.

A Reuters poll of economists had predicted the economy would grow 15.2 percent year-on-year in the April-June quarter.

State Bank of India, in its report, had projected the growth rate at 15.7 percent for April-June 2022.

The data shows that the manufacturing sector grew at 4.8 percent as compared to 4.9 percent in the same quarter last year.

The agriculture sector saw a growth of 4.5 percent versus 2.2 percent on a year-on-year basis, the report showed.

Another report said, the All-India Consumer Price Index for Industrial Workers or CPI-IW for July 2022 increased by 0.7 points and stood at 129.9 (one hundred twenty-nine point nine).

On one-month percentage change, it increased by 0.54 percent with respect to the previous month compared to an increase of 0.90 percent recorded between corresponding months a year ago, according to the Ministry of Labour & Employment statement issued on Wednesday.

The maximum upward pressure in the current index came from the Housing group contributing 0.37 percentage points to the total change.

At item level Cooking Gas, Electricity Domestic, Potato, Onion, Gourd, Mango.

Bananas, Chillies Dry, Cooked Meal, Wheat, Wheat Atta, Arhar Dal, Tur Dal, etc. are responsible for the rise in the index.

However, this increase was largely checked by Tomato, Poultry Chicken, Soybean oil, Sunflower Oil, Mustard oil, Palm oil, Rice, Apple, Lemon, Radish, Garlic, Drum Stick, etc. putting downward pressure on the index.

At centre level, Udham Singh Nagar recorded a maximum increase of 3.8 points followed by Jalpaiguri and Jalandhar with 3.3 and3.2 points respectively. Among others, 9 centres recorded an increase between 2 to 2.9 points, 32 centres between I to 1.9 points and 24 centres between 0.1 to 0.9 points.

On the contrary, Salem recorded a maximum decrease of 4.1 points.

Among others, 2 centers recorded decrease between 2 to 2.9 points, 3 centers between 1 to 1.9 points, and 1 centre between 0.1 to 0.9 points.

The rest of three centres’ indices remained stationary.

Year-on-year inflation for the month stood at 5.78 percent compared to 6.16 percent for the previous month and 5.26 percent during the corresponding month a year before.

Similarly, food inflation stood at 5.96 percent against 6.73 percent in the previous month and 4.91 percent during the corresponding month a year ago.

Shimla-based Labour Bureau, an attached office of the M/o Labour & Employment, has been compiling Consumer Price Index for Industrial Workers every month on the basis of retail prices collected from 317 markets spread over 88 industrially important centres in the country.

The index is compiled for 88 centres and is released on the last working day of the succeeding month.
(With UNI inputs)