India overtakes China in GDP growth rate

India’s GDP  grew at 7.5%  during the January-March period, faster than China’s 7% in the same period.

This dramatic change in India's growth numbers came after its statisticians changed the way they measure  Asia's third-largest economy.  India now measures GDP by market prices instead of factor cost, to take into account gross value addition in goods and services as well as indirect taxes. The base year has been shifted to 2011-12 from 2004-05.

Previously, India had celebrated that its growth was faster than its larger neighbour i,e China  in the December quarter, but on Friday the Central Statistics Office sharply revised the number down to 6.6 per cent from 7.5 per cent, further distorting the picture.

Full-year growth for the fiscal year ending in March came in at 7.3 % data on Friday showed, up from 6.9 %  2013/14 and a tad lower than an official estimate of 7.4 %.