India's economic growth may have slowed to 3.5% in Q4 FY22: ICRA

The economic growth may have slowed to 3.5 percent in fourth quarter of 2021-22 from 5.4 percent in the previous three-month period due to the impact of higher commodity prices on margins, decline in wheat yields and on higher base, ICRA Ratings said on Monday. The agency said the hiccups in the recovery of the contact-intensive services attributable to the third wave of COVID-19 in the country may have also affected the economic growth in the quarter.

Even the gross value added (GVA) at basic prices (at constant 2011-12 prices) in Q4 FY2022 seems to have eased to 2.7 percent from 4.7 percent in Q3 FY2022, it said. The National Statistical Office (NSO) will release the fourth quarter numbers of fiscal 2022 on May 31.

ICRA’s Chief Economist Aditi Nayar said Q4 was a challenging quarter, with the Omicron-fuelled third wave of COVID-19 arresting the momentum in contact-intensive services, and a pervasive pressure on margins from higher commodity prices.