According to new provisional estimates from India’s National Statistical Office (NSO) the nation’s Gross Domestic Product (GDP) for the quarter from July-September was up 6.3% year over year.

The Reserve Bank of India had projected the period would show a growth rate between 6.1% and 6.3% earlier this month.

GDP had grown by 8.4% in the same quarter for 2021-22, however in the preceding quarter of April-June of 2022-23, it had grown 13.5%, according to the new data.

Meanwhile GDP at current prices, or nominal GDP in Q2 of 2022-23 grew at a rate of 16.2% vs the 19% it grew in Q2 of 2021-22, according to the report.

In the agriculture sector, the report showed growth of 4.6% in the July-September period, an increase from the previous quarter which improved on the 3.2% recorded during that same period the previous year.

Manufacturing contracted 4.3% however, in a move which reversed the 4.8% expansion it saw in the first fiscal quarter, and was well-off the 5.6% growth rate in the same quarter one year prior. Construction was up 6.6%, which in that sector offers a huge boost to employment as well.

N R Bhanumurthy, vice chancellor of the Bengaluru-based Ambedkar School of Economics University, said in an interview with Nikkei Asia, “Overall, if you can come somewhere close to between 6.5% and 7% [growth] in the current financial year, that is an extremely decent number, because maybe we are [one of a few] countries which are going to grow at a positive rate.”

He added, “Given the current global headwinds, growing at [this rate], in my view, is a fantastic number.”

According to the data, India held onto the title of fastest growing major economy as China stagnated, with a 3.9% rate of economic growth in July-September of 2022.