India’s GDP growth to be in the band of 6.5-6.7% for FY24: CII President R Dinesh

Economy could grow at 7.8% in the next decade as compared to 6.6% in the previous decade, as per CII chief

India’s Gross Domestic Product (GDP) will grow in the range of 6.5-6.7 percent in 2023-24 supported by strong domestic drivers and robust capex momentum of the government, newly-appointed President of the Confederation of Indian Industry (CII), R Dinesh said.

“The Indian economy remains resilient in the face of a challenging global environment and we do not anticipate major domestic roadblocks in the year ahead,” added Dinesh in his address to the media for the first time after taking over as CII President.

The CII chief's statement comes a day after the release of the official GDP data for the financial year 2022-23, which outshone all expectations.

The country’s GDP for 2022-23 as a whole, stood at 7.2 percent, 20 basis points higher than the second advance estimate of 7 percent.

At 6.1 percent, the latest quarterly growth number was also significantly higher than expectations of 5.1 percent.

Apart from the capex push by the government, he added that the resilience in the domestic economy comes from the healthy balance sheets of the corporates and a well-capitalised financial system.

India’s medium-term growth prospects are healthy, the CII president said.

Expecting the GDP growth to a CAGR of 7.8 percent in the next decade, Dinesh said it was the multi-dimensional reforms, along with fiscal and monetary policies, that have been helping India and will take it to become a $9 trillion economy by 2030.

“Government has really walked the talk when it comes to spending on infrastructure which will help us going forward. If we leave covid aside, we see India has been on a continuous growth path. While the country was growing at a CAGR of 6.6 percent between 2012 to 2020, it is expected to grow by CAGR 7.8 percent between 2022-2031,” he said.

It is on the growth rate of 7.8 percent that CII hopes India to become a $9 trillion economy by 2030, and a $40 trillion economy by 2047.

Capital investments, at a higher scale by the government and expected fresh ones by the private sector, will drive medium-term growth, along with productivity-enhancing reforms such as GST, taxation and IBC, among others, Dinesh stressed.