Finance & economics | Beyond GDP

How fast is India’s economy really growing?

Statisticians take the country’s figures with a pinch of salt

Workers at the construction site of Dixon Technologies Ltd.'s new factory, in Noida, India
Photograph: Getty Images
|Mumbai

Optimism about India tends to spike now and again. In 1996, a few years after the country opened to foreign capital, the price of property in Mumbai, India’s financial hub, soared to the highest of any global city, according to one account. In 2007 the country’s economy grew at an annual rate of 9%, leading many to speculate that it might hit double digits. Yet after each of these booms, hopes were dashed. The late-2000s surge made way for financial turbulence in the 2010s.

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This article appeared in the Finance & economics section of the print edition under the headline “Getting the right frame”

From the April 13th 2024 edition

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