India’s economy grew faster than expected between January and March, with a strong growth rate of 7.4%. This was mainly because agriculture and construction did very well. This good performance in the last quarter helped India’s total growth for the year 2024-25 reach 6.5%, according to data from the National Statistics Office.
The 7.4% growth in January-March was better than the 6.4% growth in the October-December quarter. It shows that the economy remained strong in the last part of the year despite some global problems. India was the fastest-growing major economy during this time, ahead of China (5.4%) and Indonesia (4.9%). The overall growth of 6.5% for the year matched expectations but was the lowest in the past 4 years. This is because the economy grew 9.2% the year before.
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V Anantha Nageswaran, the chief economic adviser, said strong demand inside the country helped GDP growth. Private spending is now at its highest level since 2004. He also said the government expects the economy to grow between 6.3% and 6.8% in 2025-26, with private spending, especially in rural areas, and strong services exports driving growth. Many experts expect growth in the range of 6.3% to 6.7% this year.
The data showed the farming sector grew by 5.4% and construction grew by 10.8% from January to March. The services sector grew by 7.3%, which is slightly less than the same period last year when it grew 7.8%.
The 6.5% growth for the whole year happened because people spent more and businesses invested more. The big jump in investments during the last quarter helped a lot.
DK Joshi, chief economist at Crisil, said India’s economy grew to $3.9 trillion in 2024-25 from $3.6 trillion the year before. He explained that spending, especially in rural areas helped by good farming, was stronger than the overall GDP growth. Investment also increased sharply in the last quarter. Joshi expects India’s GDP to grow around 6.5% in 2025-26 but warned that there are some risks that could slow growth.
