Asia's third largest economy recorded year-on-year growth of 4.4% in October-December, down from 6.3% in July-September, data released by the government on Tuesday showed.

The growth rate for the third quarter of India's 2022/23 financial year was below the 4.6% forecast by economists in a Reuters poll.

COMMENTARY

UPASNA BHARDWAJ, CHIEF ECONOMIST, KOTAK MAHINDRA BANK, MUMBAI

"GDP numbers for the third quarter are broadly in line with our expectations of 4.3%, but comes in the backdrop of several revisions."

"At 4.4%, the government has retained its full-year number of 7%. The fourth quarter estimate will need upward revision and we will have to look at the revised numbers in detail to get a sense of direction of GDP estimates."

RUPA REGE NITSURE, GROUP CHIEF ECONOMIST, L&T FINANCIAL HOLDINGS, MUMBAI

"While statistical base effect has pulled down India's quarterly GDP growth from 6.3% in Q2 to 4.4% in Q3, the overall growth picture is highly uneven."

"There is a significant deceleration in consumption growth - both for the private and government sectors. A possibility of additional interest rate hikes coupled with a slowdown in overall demand pose a further downside risk to manufacturing activity."

KUNAL KUNDU, INDIA ECONOMIST, SOCIETE GENERALE, BENGALURU

"India's 4Q22 real GDP grew by 4.4% Y/Y as against our expectation of 4.7%. However, the lower growth was mainly on account of upward revision of previous data point."

"The palpable weakness in domestic consumption that we have been highlighting for long is clearly evident in the data as consumption remained virtually unchanged in real terms and barely above the pre-COVID level, virtually three years since the onset of the pandemic."

"While investment recorded a modest increase, the drop in its share suggests anemic pace of business investment. For the full year, we do expect FY22-23 real GDP to grow by 7.0% Y/Y and then drop substantially next year to around 6.0%."

MADHAVI ARORA, LEAD ECONOMIST, EMKAY GLOBAL, MUMBAI

"The lower-than-expected quarterly numbers have been muddled amid sharp data revisions, usually seen with the release of this print each year. We had seen the same magnitude of revisions in the past two years, which were affected by COVID disruptions."

(Reporting by Anuran Sadhu, Navamya Ganesh, Nandan Mandayam and Nallur Sethuraman in Bengaluru; editing by Eileen Soreng)