SBI slashes FY23 growth forecast to 6.8%

Mumbai: Chief economist at State Bank of India has revised downward the full-year growth forecast to a low 6.8 per cent from 7.5 per cent earlier for FY2023, citing "the way below GDP numbers for the first quarter".

The National Statistical Office on Wednesday released the Q1 growth numbers which showed a consensus growth of 13.5 per cent, pulled down by the poor show of the manufacturing sector, which reported a paltry 4.8 per cent expansion in the first three months of FY23, negating the robust show by the services sector.

Consensus forecast was 15-16.7 per cent of which the RBI made the highest forecast of 16.7 per cent.SBI group chief economic adviser Soumya Kanti Ghosh had also forecast a 15.7 per cent growth for the first quarter.

The economy from the gross value added (GVA) also fared much lower than forecast, logging in only 12.7 per cent.

At 13.5 per cent, real GDP (gross domestic product) growth has declined by 9.6 per cent sequentially, but the seasonally adjusted real GDP growth series shows pick-up in economic momentum, with higher growth at 5.6 per cent sequentially in Q1 compared to -4.1 per cent in Q1FY22 and 1.9 percent in Q4FY22, Ghosh, said in a note on

Thursday.

The headline GDP numbers hide more things than these reveal and it's time to seriously introspect on the measurement of IIP and CPI baskets which were last revised in 2012,

he said.