India GDP Q3 Growth Data: India’s gross domestic product (GDP) grew at 7.8 per cent in the third quarter ended December 31, 2025 (Q3 FY26), according to the latest official data released on Friday. Analysts had estimated the Q2FY26 economic growth in the range of 7% to 8.1%.
The full FY26 real GDP growth has been pegged at 7.6%, as per the second advance estimates released on Friday, against the first advance estimate of 7.4% released in January. The GDP growth had stood at 7.1% in the previous financial year 2024-25.
The nominal GDP is estimated to have grown at 8.6% in FY26.
The latest GDP data has come with a new base year of 2022-23 (compared with 2011-12 earlier), to better reflect the evolving structure of the economy.
“Real GDP or GDP at Constant Prices in Q3 of FY 2025-26 is estimated at Rs 84.54 lakh crore, against Rs 78.41 lakh crore in Q3 of FY 2024-25, showing a growth rate of 7.8%," the National Statistical Office said in a statement on February 27, 2026.
Nominal GDP, which factors in inflation, has witnessed a growth rate of 8.6% in Q3 of FY 2025-26.
The country’s economic growth has also been revised upwards from 8.2% to 8.4% for the previous quarter this fiscal (Q2 FY26). However, the growth rate for the first quarter was revised downwards to from 7.8% to 6.7%.
“At first glance, the momentum in the rebased growth numbers appears to be marginally stronger than the previous trend, with methodological changes expected to have captured updated production structures, wider coverage of segments, new ratios, and improved government data sets, including those that capture activity in the informal sector," Radhika Rao, senior economist at DBS Bank, Singapore told Reuters.
Aditi Nayar, chief economist at ICRA, said, “As per the dataset on the new 2022-23 series released by the NSO, India’s real GDP growth is estimated to have eased to 7.8% in Q3 FY2026 from 8.4% in Q2 FY2026, although both numbers are healthier than what we had expected. The moderation was expectedly driven by the agriculture and the non-manufacturing industrial sectors, including mining, electricity and construction segments. Encouragingly, manufacturing GVA expanded by double digits for the fifth consecutive quarter in a row in Q3 FY2026, while services GVA growth inched up to a 7-quarter high of 9.5% from 9.3% in the previous quarter."
She added that the data for FY2023-25 has been revised materially as per the new 2022-23 base. Notably, the size of the Indian economy is estimated to be somewhat smaller than that as per the 2011-12 base; the nominal GDP for FY2024 and FY2025 is 3.8% each lower than that estimated in the old series, while the SAE for FY2026 is 3.3% lower than the FAE as per the old series. This implies that the fiscal deficit-to-GDP ratio would be ~15-20 bps higher on an average during these years as compared to the previous estimates. More importantly, this would also imply a fiscal deficit target of 4.46% of GDP for FY2027, as against the 4.3% assumed in the budget, assuming a nominal GDP growth of ~10% in the fiscal.
Sector-Wise Q3 GDP Growth
The manufacturing sector grew at a surprise rate of 13.3% in Q3 FY26, while the agriculture sector grew 1.4%. The trade, hotels, transport, communication & services related to broadcasting grew at a double-digit rate of 11%.
The secondary (10.1%) and tertiary (9.5%) sectors have boosted the real GDP growth rate in Q3 of FY 2025-26. The primary sector grew 1.7%.
Financial, real estate & professional services (11.2%) in the tertiary sector has sustained a substantial growth rate at constant prices in Q3 of FY 2025-26. The electricity, gas, water supply and other utility services sector (1.5%) has seen moderated real growth rate during Q3 of FY 2025-26.
Q3 GDP Data: Expenditure & Investments Growth
Government Final Consumption Expenditure (GFCE) has decreased, registering a 4.7% rise in Q3 of FY 2025-26, over the growth rate of 7.6% in Q3 of FY 2024-25, according to the latest data.
Real Private Final Consumption Expenditure (PFCE) has reported 8.7% growth rate during Q3 of FY 2025-26 as compared with the 6.0% growth rate in the corresponding period of the previous financial year.
Gross Fixed Capital Formation (GFCF) has recorded 7.8% growth rate at Constant Prices, over the growth rate of 6.3% in Q1 of FY 2024-25.
New GDP Base Year 2022-23: What Has Changed?
India has revised its GDP base year from 2011-12 to 2022-23 to better reflect the evolving structure of the economy. The updated series will incorporate granular data sources such as GST records, e-Vahan vehicle registration data and natural gas consumption figures.
The revision is also expected to improve the measurement of the informal economy using quarterly QBUSE bulletins and capture the growing share of digital commerce and services in overall output.
Why Has The GDP Base Year Been Revised Now?
Officials say the revision was delayed due to major structural changes and disruptions.
“We would have had this revision earlier, but there were some important economic changes that happened in the country. First GST got introduced, and then Covid intervened," Saurabh Garg, secretary in the Ministry of Statistics and Programme Implementation, said in an interview with Forbes India.
He added that the revision is being undertaken now because updated and reliable data are available and said, “we hope to do it (the base year revisions) every five years or so".
