India's full-year GDP growth for FY26 revised up to 7.7%, with the March quarter at 7.8%

India's economy grew at a real rate of 7.7% in the financial year that ended in March 2026, according to national accounts released by the National Statistics Office on June 5. The figure edged past the 7.6% projected in the second advance estimates published in February, which did not yet have the January-March quarter in them. Growth in that quarter was put at 7.8%, against 7% in the same quarter a year earlier, on strong investment, sustained farm production and expansion in construction and the tertiary sector. The 7.1% that appears alongside these numbers is the growth recorded in 2024-25, a year revised up in its own time.

Our government led by PM Narendra Modi is committed to further drive the 'Reform Express' with decisive policy measures to ensure positive economic momentum amidst the global challenges.

The numbers were also released on the revised 2022-23 base year, which is the yardstick against which every rupee of output in the new series is measured. Comparisons drawn between figures on the old base and the new base are not like-for-like, and the distinction has been the subject of sustained argument since the rebasing.

1. 1.Real GDP at constant prices for FY2025-26: ₹323.12 lakh crore, against ₹299.89 lakh crore in FY25 as first revised.
2. 2.Nominal GDP at current prices: ₹346.36 lakh crore, up 8.9% from ₹318.07 lakh crore.
3. 3.Real gross value added: ₹294.91 lakh crore, up 7.9%.
4. 4.Reserve Bank of India forecast for FY2026-27: 6.6%, cut from 6.9% in April.

Why the Reserve Bank cut its own forecast in the same week

A record year for output and a downgrade to the forward projection are not contradictory. The first describes what has already happened; the second is the Bank's judgement about what a high base does to the next twelve months. A 6.6% forecast on top of 7.7% is a slowing rate of expansion, not a contraction. The Bank was explicit about why it cut: it said the West Asia conflict had prolonged without a meaningful resolution, raising risks to both growth and inflation.

The gap between real and nominal growth is the number worth holding on to. Nominal GDP grew 8.9% against real growth of 7.7%, a spread of about 1.2 percentage points. That spread is a rough proxy for the price level, and it is what determines whether debt burdens, wage negotiations and corporate revenues feel easy or tight. It is also the figure that the most contested arguments about Indian national accounts tend to turn on.

• Real GDP: 7.7% for FY2025-26, against 7.6% in the second advance estimates.
• March 2026 quarter: 7.8%, against 7% a year earlier.
• Real GVA for the year: 7.9%, slightly ahead of the GDP headline.
• Nominal GDP: 8.9%.
• Within the quarter: manufacturing slowed to 7.3% from 11.8%, while the farm sector held at 3.6%.

Gross value added growing marginally faster than GDP is a detail rather than a curiosity. GVA strips out the product taxes that sit between production and the final value of output, so a positive wedge between the two is usually read as indicating that taxes on products grew faster than value added. It is a small signal, but it is the direction in which the fiscal arithmetic of the year has moved.