Riding on the back of strong consumer demand, India is likely to remain the fastest-growing major economy in the world in 2024, Assocham said on Thursday.

The consumer demand will lead to a pickup in investment across sectors such as construction, hospitality and infrastructure including railways and aviation.

India retained the tag of the world’s fastest-growing major economy, with its GDP expanding by a faster-than-expected rate of 7.6 per cent in the July-September quarter on booster shots from government spending and manufacturing.

Notably, country’s GDP growth of 7.6 per cent beat most estimates, including 6.5 per cent projected by the Reserve Bank of India (RBI).

India’s GDP growth beat China’s 4.9 per cent rise in July-September, while the Western economies are getting crushed under high-interest rates and energy prices.

“India’s macro picture looks quite convincing with the overall economy following a trend growth of seven per cent with critical building blocks combining to give it brighter prospects,” Assocham Secretary General Deepak Sood said.

According to the industry body, India Inc led by financials, construction, hotels, aviation, automobile and other manufacturing areas like electronics are on a strong pitch to further improve performance in the coming year.

It said the trajectory is being helped by the low crude oil prices, keeping inflation in check with a big positive on raw material cost.

“Sectors like construction have several related industries which too have gained momentum. These include steel, cement, mining, electricity generation and consumer durables.”

The macroeconomic indicators including government balance sheet reflected in strong tax collections, record foreign exchange reserves, stability in the rupee against major currencies and signs of revival in merchandise exports are expected to further improve, it estimated.

Recently, RBI highlighted that the decline is driven by mainly due to lower merchandise trade deficit and growth in services exports. Services exports grew by 4.2 per cent on a y-o-y basis on the back of rising exports of software, business and travel services.

RBI data said the services exports grew by 4.2 per cent on a y-o-y basis on the back of rising exports of software, business and travel services. Net services receipts increased both sequentially and on a y-o-y basis.

Net outgo on the primary income account, primarily reflecting payments of investment income, increased to USD12.2 billion from USD 11.8 billion a year ago.