India’s economy has continued to outperform expectations, with real GDP expanding 7.8 per cent in the April-June quarter of FY2026-27. The International Monetary Fund (IMF) said the stronger-than-expected performance highlights the resilience of the Indian economy despite the impact of higher energy prices.
IMF spokesperson Julie Kozack said on Thursday that India’s latest growth figure exceeded both the expectations of IMF staff and the broader market consensus.
According to Kozack, stronger activity in the services sector and better-than-expected export performance were the main factors behind the upside surprise in the first quarter of the financial year.
She said the latest figures also demonstrated the importance of India to global economic growth, particularly at a time when countries are dealing with elevated energy costs and wider economic uncertainty.
The IMF’s positive assessment comes as India’s latest GDP data has also triggered a debate over the methodology used to calculate economic growth.
Addressing questions about the transparency and reliability of India’s economic statistics, Kozack pointed to changes introduced in the latest GDP estimation framework. She highlighted the inclusion of a new Index of Industrial Production and a new Producer Price Index series.
According to the IMF spokesperson, the addition of these datasets should help improve the quality of India’s GDP estimates.
Kozack said the IMF welcomed India’s efforts to modernise its macroeconomic statistics. At the same time, she encouraged Indian authorities to continue strengthening the country’s statistical system and improving the quality of economic data.
The debate over the latest growth numbers intensified after former Finance Secretary Subhash Chandra Garg questioned the reported 7.8 per cent expansion. Garg raised concerns over revisions to the previous year’s current-price GDP figures and argued that the growth picture could look substantially different depending on the base used for comparison.
Official data released by the Ministry of Statistics and Programme Implementation (MoSPI), however, showed real GDP at Rs 81.36 lakh crore in the first quarter of FY27, compared with Rs 75.46 lakh crore during the corresponding quarter of FY26.
The 7.8 per cent expansion was also higher than the 7 per cent growth rate previously projected by the Reserve Bank of India for the quarter.
The latest figures therefore present two parallel developments: a stronger-than-expected economic performance and an ongoing discussion about the methodology, revisions and transparency behind India’s national accounts.
For the IMF, however, the headline message remains positive. Kozack said the latest growth performance showed that India’s economy had remained resilient despite the energy price shock, reinforcing the country’s position as an important engine of global growth.
