India sustains growth momentum as fastest growing economy for fourth year in a row: Sitharaman

Finance Minister Nirmala Sitharaman on Friday said India is sustaining its GDP growth momentum as the fastest-growing economy for the fourth year in a row, aided by manufacturing by small, medium and large industries, services and farm sector.

She said India’s manufacturing sector has been “good” during the March quarter of 2024-25, which helped clock a GDP growth of 6.5 per cent for the full fiscal.

“India is sustaining this growth as the fastest growing economy now for the fourth year continuously without a break, thanks to the work of small and medium, large industries, which are coming in and making sure our manufacturing capacity, our service capacity are all intact. Agriculture has also sustained us even during the Covid and subsequently,” Sitharaman said.

Speaking at the Lakshmipat Singhania -IIM Lucknow National Leadership Award, the minister said that during the January-March quarter, there were views that industry was not investing enough, capacities were not increasing, and questioned its impact on the economy.

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“I’m glad, India’s industry…the manufacturing activity have all been so good during Quarter four and Q4 growth alone was 7.4 per cent. As a result, for the entire financial year of 2024-25 (April-March), the GDP numbers are 6.5 per cent,” Sitharaman said.

During the fourth quarter of FY25, manufacturing output grew at 4.8 per cent, while services and farm sector growth was 5.4 per cent each.