India GDP: Country’s economy ended 2023 ‘with a bang’ as growth surged to 8.4%

The world’s fastest-growing major economy is living up to its billing.

Gross domestic product in India surged 8.4% in the final three months of 2023 compared with a year prior, up from growth of 7.6% in the June-to-September period, the country’s statistics office said Thursday.

The latest rise is much stronger than analysts expected and means India’s economy “ended last year with a bang,” Thamashi De Silva, assistant India economist at Capital Economics, wrote in a note.

“That pace of growth was the strongest among major economies last quarter,” she said, also noting that in 2023 as a whole GDP grew 7.7%. Timelier business activity data suggests “the economy has made a flying start to 2024 too,” she added.

The data will further bolster optimism over the economic prospects of the world’s most populous nation.