India's economy grew a better-than-expected 5.8 per cent in the first three months of 2009, a performance that could ease pressure on the newly-installed government of Prime Minister Manmohan Singh for more fiscal stimulus and industrial rescue packages.
The quarter's growth was significantly slower than the 8.6 per cent expansion achieved during the first three months of 2008. India's manufacturing sector, hard hit by slumping demand, fared particularly poorly, contracting by 1.4 per cent from the same period last year.
The positive figures, propelled partly by the government's aggressive fiscal stimulus measures, as well as strong growth in construction, financial services and agriculture, sent India's stock market soaring.