After rapid economic growth of 7.2% in the 2022-23 fiscal year, economic momentum has remained strong in the first half of 2023. The S&P Global India Services PMI Business Activity Index for July signalled continued rapid expansion in output and new orders, while July’s Manufacturing PMI survey also showed strong expansionary conditions.
India has also become an increasingly attractive location for multinationals across a wide range of industries, with foreign direct investment inflows (FDI) having reached a new record high of USD 85 billion in the 2021-22 fiscal year. FDI investment inflows into the manufacturing sector rose by 76% year-on-year (y/y) in 2021-22, reaching a level of over USD 21 billion.
India’s economic expansion continues in mid-2023
Recent economic indicators for India during the first half of 2023 continue to signal expansionary economic conditions driven by domestic demand. Steel production rose by 11.9% y/y in the April-June quarter, while consumption of steel rose by 10.2% y/y. Sales of commercial vehicles rose sharply higher in FY2022-23, increasing by 34.3% y/y, while sales of private vehicles rose by 18.7% y/y in FY2022-23.
The index of industrial production, which generally shows considerable monthly volatility, recorded growth of 4.5% y/y in the April-June quarter, while manufacturing output rose by 4.7% y/y in the same quarter. For the FY2022-23 from April to March, industrial production was up 5.2% y/y, with manufacturing output rising by 4.7% y/y over the same period.
For FY2022-23, production of capital goods rose by 12.9% y/y, while production of infrastructure and construction goods rose by 12.5% y/y. However, production of consumer durables and non-durables was sluggish, with production of consumer durables growing at a marginal pace of 0.6 y/y in FY2022-23 while consumer non-durables grew by 0.5% y/y, according to the National Statistical Office.
In the April-June quarter of 2023, production of capital goods rose by 4.9% y/y, while production of infrastructure and construction goods rose by 14.0% y/y. Output of consumer durables remained weak, contracting by 2.8% y/y, although output of consumer non-durables showed strong momentum, rising by 6.7% y/y.
The seasonally adjusted S&P Global India Manufacturing Purchasing Managers’ Index (PMI) posted 57.7 in July, broadly in line with the reading of 57.8 in June. The index signalled continued robust expansion in the manufacturing sector. Business conditions have now strengthened in each of the past 25 months.
Reports of demand improvements were widespread across the latest survey and resulted in another marked expansion of new orders in the sector.
Rising from 58.5 in June to 62.3 in July, the seasonally adjusted S&P Global India Services PMI Business Activity Index signalled the sharpest increase in output since June 2010. The upturn was largely attributed to demand strength and new business gains.
However, India’s exports of goods and services for the April-July 2023 period contracted by 6.0% y/y, due to a significant decline in merchandise exports of 14.5% y/y in the April-July quarter. The decline of merchandise exports was mitigated by strong growth in services exports, which rose by 7.8% y/y over the same period.
Inflationary conditions
Cost inflation pressures strengthened in July, with acceleration noted by both goods producers and service providers. At the composite level, input costs increased at the fastest rate in a year. On the other hand, prices charged for Indian goods and services rose at the slowest pace in three months. Rates of output price inflation moderated in both the manufacturing and service economies.
The latest statistics on India’s consumer price index (CPI) showed that the headline CPI inflation rate surged further to 7.4% y/y in July from a pace of 4.8% y/y in June.
A key factor contributing to the upturn in the headline CPI inflation rate was a further sharp upturn in the food and beverages CPI sub-index. The food and beverages CPI subindex rose by 10.6% y/y in July compared with 4.6% y/y in June driven by a surge in vegetables prices, as well as significant price rises for cereals and pulses.
The vegetables CPI subindex had registered significant declines in recent months, falling by 8.2% y/y in May after a decline of 6.5% y/y in April. However, in July vegetables prices rose by 37.3% y/y. A significant contributing factor to the sharp upturn in vegetable prices was a sharp rise in tomato prices, due to crop damage in some regions. Prices for pulses also showed a strong increase, rising by 13.3% y/y in July. A key concern for the Indian government has also been rapid rises in rice prices, with the overall cereals sub-index up by 13.0% y/y.
High energy prices have been an important factor contributing to India’s CPI inflation pressures over the past year, but have been easing in recent months, helped by some moderation in world oil prices as well as the impact of base-year effects owing to the spike in world oil prices a year ago, in the second quarter of 2022. The fuel and light sub-index increase moderated further in July, to 3.7% y/y, compared with 3.9% y/y in June and significantly lower than the 8.9% y/y rate recorded in March.
The Reserve Bank of India (RBI) in its August Monetary Policy Statement raised its projected CPI inflation rate for the current fiscal year (2023-24) to 5.4%, compared with its 5.1% y/y projection made in the June Monetary Policy Statement. This nevertheless represents a significant moderation from the 6.5% rise in CPI inflation in fiscal year 2022-23. The near-term trajectory of CPI inflation is projected in the RBI August Monetary Policy Statement at 6.2% y/y for the July-September quarter, 5.7% year over year for the October to December quarter of fiscal 2023-24, moderating to 5.2% y/y in the January-March quarter of 2024, based on the assumption of a normal monsoon.
The RBI’s August Monetary Policy Statement had expected that the headline CPI inflation rate would likely witness a spike in coming months on account of disruptions to food production due to adverse weather conditions. The RBI also noted risks to food production from the impact of the skewed south-west monsoon so far, as well as upward pressures on food prices due to a possible El Niño event as well as geopolitical hostilities.
The RBI projection in its August Monetary Policy Statement for real GDP growth for fiscal year 2023-24 remained unchanged at 6.5%. Domestic economic activity is assessed by the RBI to have remained resilient in the April-June quarter of fiscal year 2023-24, as reflected in high-frequency indicators such as passenger vehicle sales and domestic air passenger traffic, as well as steel consumption and cement output. The index of industrial production grew at a pace of 4.5% y/y in the April-June quarter, while core industries output rose by 8.2% y/y in June.
Foreign direct investment
Net new foreign direct investment into India has risen very rapidly in recent years, with FDI reaching a new record level of USD 85 billion in the 2021-22 fiscal year, after inflows of USD 82 billion in the previous 2020-21 fiscal year. This compares with FDI inflows of just USD 4 billion in the 2003-04 fiscal year.
Sustained strong FDI inflows have helped to reduce India’s external account vulnerability and have contributed to boost India’s foreign exchange reserves over the past decade.
A key contributor to strong FDI inflows over the past decade has been technology related FDI, which has become an important source of investment. The Computer Software and Hardware sector was the largest recipient of foreign direct investment equity inflows in the 2021-22 fiscal year, at around 25% of the total inflows.
US technology firms have been a key source of recent FDI inflows into India. In 2020, Google established the “Google for India Digitization Fund”, through which it announced plans to invest USD 10 billion into India over seven years through a mix of equity investments, partnerships, and operational, infrastructure and ecosystem investments. Also in 2020, Facebook announced an investment of USD 5.7 billion in Jio Platforms, owned by Reliance Industries Limited.
Infrastructure investments have also been an important sector for FDI inflows. A large FDI deal in 2020 was the USD 3.7 billion investment by Singapore’s GIC and Canada’s Brookfield Asset Management in the acquisition of Tower Infrastructure Trust, which owns Indian telecom towers assets.
In the 2020-21 fiscal year, FDI from Saudi Arabia also rose sharply, reaching USD 2.8 billion. Saudi Arabia’s Public Investment Fund acquired a USD 1.5 billion stake in Jio Platforms and a USD 1.3 billion stake in Reliance Retail in 2020.
Reliance Retail also received investment from other foreign firms in 2020, with Singapore’s GIC and TPG Private Capital having invested a combined amount of USD 1 billion, while US private equity firm Silver Lake Partners also invested USD 1 billion.
By source of origin of FDI inflows, Singapore, Mauritius and United Arab Emirates were three of the four top sources of FDI inflows into India in FY 2022-23, alongside the USA. This highlights the growing importance of India’s bilateral economic and investment relationships with global financial hubs in emerging markets, in addition to strong ties with advanced economies like the USA, Japan, EU and UK.
Unicorns
The rapid growth in numbers of Indian unicorns (start-ups that have achieved a valuation of over USD 1 billion) over the past five years has also become a major focus for foreign direct investment inflows into India. By 2022, there were an estimated 107 Indian unicorns, with 44 of these having reached unicorn status within the 2021 year and 21 in the 2022 year, according to Invest India, the National Investment Promotion & Facilitation Agency.
Indian start-up firms have attracted large-scale foreign direct investment from global venture capital and private equity firms such as Blackstone and Sequoia Capital. Japan’s SoftBank has been a leading global investor in Indian tech start-ups, having invested over USD 14 billion into Indian firms over the past decade, with an estimated USD 3 billion of new FDI in calendar 2021.
Electronics sector investment
As in many other auto manufacturing hubs worldwide, global semiconductors shortages caused significant disruption to Indian auto production in 2021, constraining new auto output and sales. With India still highly reliant on imported chips, the Indian government announced a large new incentive package of USD 10 billion in December 2021, to try to encourage the development of semiconductors and display manufacturing in India. The new incentive scheme will provide 50% financial support for the cost of establishing new semiconductors fabrication and packaging plants as well as display plants in India. Many major international electronics firms have commenced initial discussions about establishing production facilities in India. Micron has announced that it will build a semiconductors assembly and test facility in Gujarat, with construction planned for 2023-24.
India already has strong capabilities in semiconductor design, with an estimated 24,000 design engineers working in India. The federal government will work with state governments in order to establish high-tech clusters for semiconductor fabs and display fabs.
India has already made considerable progress in developing its domestic electronics manufacturing industry over the past decade, with total electronics manufacturing estimated to have risen from USD 30 billion in 2014-15 to USD 75 billion in 2019-20. The growth in electronics exports has been helped by rapid growth in exports of mobile phones as major global electronics firms have rapidly expanded their production of mobile phones in India. India’s mobile phone exports rose from USD 0.2 billion in the fiscal year 2017-18 to USD 3.2 billion in the 2020-21 fiscal year, rising further to USD 5.5 billion in the 2021-22 fiscal year. The Indian Cellular and Electronics Association estimated that mobile phone exports doubled to USD 11.1 billion in 2022-23 compared to the previous fiscal year. India’s electronics goods exports rose by 37.6% y/y in the April-July quarter of 2023, highlighting the rapid pace of expansion in India’s exports of electronics products.
Indian economic outlook
After two years of rapid economic growth in 2021 and 2022, the near-term economic outlook is for continued rapid expansion during 2023-24, underpinned by strong growth in private consumption and investment.
The acceleration of foreign direct investment inflows into India over the past decade reflects the favourable long-term growth outlook for the Indian economy, helped by a youthful demographic profile and rapidly rising urban household incomes. India’s nominal GDP measured in USD terms is forecast to rise from USD 3.5 trillion in 2022 to USD 7.3 trillion by 2030. This rapid pace of economic expansion would result in the size of the Indian GDP exceeding Japanese GDP by 2030, making India the second largest economy in the Asia-Pacific region. By 2022, the size of Indian GDP had already become larger than the GDP of the UK and also France. By 2030, India’s GDP is also forecast to surpass Germany.
The long-term outlook for the Indian economy is supported by a number of key growth drivers. An important positive factor for India is its large and fast-growing middle class, which is helping to drive consumer spending. The rapidly growing Indian domestic consumer market as well as its large industrial sector have made India an increasingly important investment destination for a wide range of multinationals in many sectors, including manufacturing, infrastructure and services.
The digital transformation of India that is currently underway is expected to accelerate the growth of e-commerce, changing the retail consumer market landscape over the next decade. This is attracting leading global multinationals in technology and e-commerce to the Indian market.
By 2030, 1.1 billion people in India will have internet access, more than doubling from the estimated 500 million internet users in 2020. The rapid growth of e-commerce and the shift to 4G and 5G smartphone technology will boost home-grown unicorns like online e-commerce platform Mensa Brands, logistics startup Delhivery and the fast-growing online grocer BigBasket, whose e-sales have surged during the pandemic.
The large increase in FDI inflows to India that has been evident over the past five years is also continuing with strong momentum evident even during the pandemic years of 2020-2022. India’s strong FDI inflows have been boosted by large inflows of investments from global technology MNCs such as Google and Facebook that are attracted to India’s large, fast-growing domestic consumer market, as well as a strong upturn in foreign direct investment inflows from manufacturing firms.
Overall, India is expected to continue to be one of the world’s fastest growing economies over the next decade. This will make India one of the most important long-term growth markets for multinationals in a wide range of industries, including manufacturing industries such as autos, electronics and chemicals to services industries such as banking, insurance, asset management, health care and information technology.
