New Delhi: India’s economy grew 7.8 per cent in the March quarter, pushing up the annual growth rate to 8.2 per cent, according to official data released on Friday. With this growth, India retains the world’s fastest growing major economy tag again.

Growth in the January-March period was lower than the 8.6 per cent expansion in the December quarter. The gross domestic product (GDP) had expanded 6.2 per cent in the January-March period of the 2022-23 fiscal year, according to data released by the National Statistical Office (NSO).

As per the data, the economy expanded 8.2 per cent in 2023-24 against a 7 per cent growth in 2022-23. The NSO in its second advance estimate of national accounts had pegged the country’s growth at 7.7 per cent for 2023-24. China has registered an economic growth of 5.3 per cent in the first three months of 2024.

Meanwhile, the government’s fiscal deficit for 2023-24 stood at 5.63 per cent of the GDP, marginally better than the 5.8 per cent estimated in the Union Budget, as per official data.

In actual terms, the fiscal deficit, or gap between expenditure and revenue, was at Rs 16.53 lakh crore. In the revised estimate for 2023-24, the government had projected the fiscal deficit of Rs 17.34 lakh crore, or 5.8 per cent of the GDP, in the interim Budget tabled on February 1 in Parliament. According to the data released by the Comptroller General of India, the government managed to meet the revenue collection target. Net tax collection was at Rs 23.26 lakh crore in FY24, while the expenditure stood at Rs 44.42 lakh crore.