New Delhi, Feb 28: The economic indicators released by the Central Statistics Office (CSO) on Wednesday showed the Indian economy surging at a rate of 7.2 per cent in third quarter of 2017-18. The GDP growth rate is not only the fastest in the current fiscal, but since Q3 of FY16-17, when the market struck a roadblock due to the midnight demonetisation drive of November 2016.

The GDP has jumped by a massive 0.7 per cent, as compared to the previous quarter, when it stood at 6.5 per cent. Apart from the overall surge in economy, another set of data released by CSO found 8 core infrastructure sectors growing at 6.7 per cent in January against 3.4 percent during the same period last year.

The GDP figures have exceeded the expectations of experts who were surveyed by Reuters ahead of the data release. 35 economists who were part of the survey had predicted the economy to grow at 6.9 per cent in the third quarter.

According to Dr Bibek Debroy, Chairman of the Economic Advisory Council to the Prime Minister, the Q3 figures signals an acceleration for the economy in the forthcoming quarters.

"Growth will pick up more in the upcoming quarters driven by the government commitment to implement structural reforms and aided by higher growth in the industrial and services sector and central government spending," he said.

"GDP trends are consistent with the robust growth of the manufacturing Purchasing Manager’s Index (PMI), Index of Industrial Production (IIP) and consumer demand. The IIP (Q-o-Q % change) grew at 4.38 percent in December 2017 as compared to 0.50 percent in September 2017," Dr Debroy added.

Economists claim the positive trends shown by economy in Q3 signals the neutralisation of the negative impact caused due to demonetisation, followed by the roll-out of Goods and Services Tax.

(The above story first appeared on LatestLY on Feb 28, 2018 06:32 PM IST. For more news and updates on politics, world, sports, entertainment and lifestyle, log on to our website latestly.com).