NEW DELHI, August 31: India’s economy expanded faster than expected in the first quarter of financial year 2026-27, with real gross domestic product growing 7.8% year on year during April-June, official data released on Monday showed.
The growth rate surpassed the 7.1% expansion estimated in a Reuters poll of economists, pointing to stronger-than-anticipated economic activity during the opening quarter of the financial year.
The Ministry of Statistics and Programme Implementation (MoSPI), which released the quarterly estimates on August 31, said real GDP was estimated at ₹81.36 lakh crore at constant 2022-23 prices, compared with ₹75.46 lakh crore in the corresponding quarter of 2025-26.
Nominal GDP, measured at current prices, was estimated at ₹88.27 lakh crore during the quarter, compared with ₹80.00 lakh crore a year earlier, registering year-on-year growth of 10.3%.
The government said the economy sustained growth momentum despite global headwinds. Ahead of the release, analysts had highlighted elevated energy prices and input constraints among the risks to growth.
The April-June performance was also stronger than projections made ahead of the official data. Rating agency Icra had estimated in July that India’s GDP would grow 6.4-6.6% in Q1 FY27, citing elevated energy prices and limited availability of inputs as potential pressures on margins in key sectors.
The first-quarter expansion, however, was slower than the previous quarter. The economy recorded revised growth of 8.6% in the January-March quarter of 2025-26, according to Reuters.
The latest GDP estimates also mark the first quarterly reading of FY27 under India’s new national accounts framework. MoSPI introduced the new annual and quarterly GDP series with 2022-23 as the base year on February 27, 2026, replacing the earlier 2011-12 base-year series.
The revised estimates incorporate updated datasets, including the new Output Producer Price Index, the Index of Industrial Production with 2022-23 as its base year, and updated administrative data from multiple sources.
The latest National Accounts Statistics also includes revised annual estimates for 2022-23, 2023-24 and 2024-25, along with quarterly estimates covering the period from the first quarter of 2022-23 through the fourth quarter of 2025-26.
The April-June data therefore provides the first official GDP reading for FY 2026-27 under the 2022-23 base-year series, setting a new benchmark for tracking the economy’s performance over the remainder of the financial year.
