India's GDP for 2014-15 pegged at 7.4 percent

The government Monday said it expects the annual gross domestic product (GDP) to grow at 7.4 percent in the current fiscal under a new method for computing national accounts, thereby resulting in the upward economic growth rate.

"Real GDP at constant (2011-12) prices in the year 2014-15 is likely to attain a level of Rs.106.57 lakh crore, as against the first revised estimate of GDP for the year 2013-14 of Rs.99.21 lakh crore, released on Jan 30, 2015," the central statistics office (CSO) said in its advance estimates of national income 2014-15. "The growth in GDP during 2014-15 is estimated at 7.4 percent as compared to the growth rate of 6.9 percent in 2013-14," it added.

The CSO, under the ministry of statistics and programme implementation, had shifted base year from 2004-05 to 2011-12, and had come out with the new annual estimate of national income and other macroeconomic aggregates on Jan 30, 2015. Under the new method, CSO measures GDP by market prices instead of factor costs, to take into account gross value addition (GVA) in goods and services and indirect taxes. 

The base year of national accounts was last revised in January 2010. The CSO had earlier said that following international practice, industry-wise estimates will be presented as gross value added (GVA) at basic prices, while GDP at market prices will henceforth be referred as GDP. The CSO has also revised growth rate for the first half of 2014-15 at 7.4 percent, from 5.5 percent it had reported earlier under the old method.

At constant prices of 2011-12, the CSO has revised the October-December gross domestic growth (GDP) rate at 7.5 percent. While the growth rate calculated under the new system for second quarter has been revised to 8.2 percent, that for first quarter has been pegged at 6.5 percent. The CSO said these estimates are based on the anticipated level of agricultural production, index of industrial production (IIP), monthly accounts of union government expenditure and of state government expenditure. 

The data furnished by CSO shows that financial, real estate, professional services, trade, hotels, transport, communication and services related to broadcasting, public administration, defence, electricity, gas, water supply and other utility services grew at the rate of over seven percent. The growth in agriculture, forestry and fishing has been estimated to be at 1.1 percent, mining and quarrying at 2.3 percent, construction at 4.5 percent and manufacturing at 6.8 percent.