India will release its Gross Domestic Product (GDP) numbers for the first quarter of the financial year on Friday and reports are expecting the GDP growth to be 7.6 percent.

Share Market Live

NSE

The growth is expected to be higher compared with the 13-quarter low of 5.6 percent for a year earlier, when many companies cut production before the launch of a nation-wide sales tax.

Of the sectors, manufacturing is expected to the largest contributor the GDP this time, as it seems to have washed off the impact of the implementation of the Goods and Services Tax (GST) this quarter, as compared to the same period in the previous year.

For the first three months of 2018, India reported 7.7 annual growth, the fastest in nearly two years.

A Reuters Poll, a research report by HDFC Bank and a CARE ratings report are expecting a 7.6 percent GDP growth.

However, the Reserve Bank of India (RBI) said it is expecting a GDP growth of 7.4 percent in its RBI report which it had released on Wednesday.

On Wednesday, the RBI said economic growth was expected to accelerate to 7.4 percent in the current fiscal year that began in April, from 6.7 percent the previous one, despite risks posed by higher oil prices and global trade tensions.

HDFC Bank

Private sector lender HDFC Bank, in its research report, said that there are some genuine signs of revival in the economy as the major growth is likely to come from the manufacturing and the service sector. The report said that agricultural growth may also support the GDP growth.

The manufacturing industry will be supported by the corporate earnings which have risen by 7.9 percent in the first quarter, led by energy, metals and mining companies and retail lenders, the report said.

Not only from the supply side, the demand side has seen a healthy rise. The report said that in this quarter there has been a boost in private consumption by observing the indicators - domestic air passenger traffic rising by 20 percent, retail credit rising by 18.5 percent and consumer durables output increasing by 7.95 percent in the first quarter of this financial year.

CARE Ratings

Credit ratings company CARE Ratings also mentioned that India's financial health and corporate sector performance will be supported via the manufacturing industry by 9.3 percent.

CARE, however, expects a 3.4 percent contribution from the agriculture sector - the least share to the GDP growth.

Apart from manufacturing, CARE Ratings is expecting the services sector, the financial, real estate and professional services and administration and defense services to be among the major contributors to support growth.