India records 8.2% GDP growth

Bloomberg

India’s economy expanded at the fastest pace in nine quarters, as strong domestic consumption and robust manufacturing growth stamped out global trade-war worries.
Gross domestic product grew a stunning 8.2 percent in the three months ended June from a year earlier, the Statistics Ministry said in a statement in New Delhi. That was faster than the 7.6 percent median estimate in a Bloomberg survey of 42 economists. Only one economist, Saugata Bhattacharya of Axis Bank Ltd., accurately predicted the pace.
The government expects the economy to expand more than 7.5 percent in the fiscal year to March 2019, Subhash Chandra Garg, economic affairs secretary in the finance ministry, said in New Delhi, adding that growth was now on a steady track.
Reforms and fiscal prudence are serving the economy well and this growth in an environment of global turmoil represents the potential of India, Finance Minister Arun Jaitley said via Twitter posts.
India grew by a sub-par 6.6 percent in fiscal 2018, provisional estimates showed, as lingering effects of a cash ban in 2016 and the chaotic introduction of a consumption tax hurt demand.
Gross value added — a key input of GDP that strips out taxes — rose 8 percent in April-June versus 7.5 percent survey estimate. Agriculture expanded 5.3 percent, manufacturing rose 13.5 percent
The numbers cement India’s position as the world’s fastest-growing major economy, putting it ahead of China, where an intensifying trade conflict with the US is dimming the growth outlook. The South Asian economy may receive a further boost from an anticipated increase in government spending in coming months, as Prime Minister Narendra Modi tries to boost his party’s prospects in the general election due in 2019.
There are headwinds to growth in the form of higher oil prices, tightening global financial conditions and a shortfall in taxes that can put budget targets out of reach.