Prime Minister Narendra Modi will meet economists and sectoral experts at NIRI Aayog on Friday, January 13, 2023, ahead of the Union Budget to discuss the state of the economy and measures to accelerate growth, which is expected to drop to 7 per cent, according to the senior government official. Several Union Ministers will attend the meeting, the official added. 

Union Finance Minister Nirmala Sitharaman will present the 2023-24 Budget to the Parliament on February 1, 2023.

Due to the weakening demand, the Indian economy is anticipated to grow at a slower rate of 7 per cent in the current fiscal year, which ends in March 2023, setting the stage for the country to lose the tag of the fastest-growing major economy. 

The first official estimate released by the statistics ministry predicts 7 per cent growth, compared to 8.7 per cent GDP growth in 2021-2The projections are lower than the government's previous forecast of 8-8.5 per cent growth but higher than the Reserve Bank's forecast of 6.8 per cent. If the prediction is accurate, India's GDP growth will be lower than Saudi Arabia's 7.6 per cent expansion. 

In fact, India's GDP growth rate in the July-September quarter was 6.3 per cent, lower than Saudi Arabia's 8.7 per cent. 

(With inputs from PTI)

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