Reporting that shows its working
Latest Five candidates file for Karnataka's West Graduates' Council seat, with both camps in the fray
Business desk
Markets, corporate results, labour, banking and the economy — read against the data rather than the noise.
The National Statistical Office's new series opened with a headline rate of 3.21% year on year, a touch above the level that keeps a February cut in play and well inside the tolerance band around the Reserve Bank of India's target.
The statistics office moved to a 2022-23 base year and reported 7.8% real growth for the October-December quarter. Two things changed at once, and only one of them is about performance.
The Monetary Policy Committee left its policy rate and neutral stance unchanged on February 6, keeping growth and inflation projections for the current financial year, and said rates linked to the repo will not move.
Released on February 1 ahead of the budget speech, the statement sets out the arithmetic behind the fiscal targets. The nominal projection for the coming year matters more to the deficit path than the headline growth figure.
The first budget read out from Kartavya Bhawan sets public capital expenditure at ₹12.2 lakh crore and holds the fiscal deficit at 4.3% of GDP on total outlays of ₹53.5 lakh crore.
The National Statistics Office's first advance estimate for 2025-26 puts real growth above the government's own range and nominal growth at a five-year low. Both facts are true, and only one of them flatters the year.
