Record Q4 investments lift 2022-23 outlays to all-time high of ₹37 lakh crore
The Hindu
Record Q4 investments lift 2022-23 outlays to all-time high of ₹37 lakh crore
India’s investment barometer closed last year’s books with a bang, as the January to March quarter recorded the highest ever total fresh investments of ₹14.6 lakh crore, led by private sector outlays that also hit an all-time quarterly high of ₹10.5 lakh crore.
The fourth-quarter spurt, that was also driven by a record uptick in manufacturing investments, lifted the total new investment projects announced in India during a financial year to a fresh peak of ₹37 lakh crore in 2022-23.
This constituted a 92% surge over the ₹19.27 lakh crore of investments announced in 2021-22, as per data from investment monitoring firm Projects Today shared with The Hindu. Projects Today has been monitoring investment project announcements since the year 2000.
The record numbers apart, the fourth quarter of 2022-23 also saw a significant shift in the nature of investments, with private sector manufacturing investments resuming the lead role of capital formation from public sector-driven infrastructure-focused capex that had been propping up the metric in recent times.
This trend should be music to the ears of the government that has outlined a ₹10 lakh crore capital investment plan for 2023-24, but has been repeatedly exhorting the private sector to invest more to boost economic growth amidst a slowing world economy. Indian industry had been citing high inflation, uneven consumption demand and rising interest rates as factors for the reluctance to raise production capacities.
New manufacturing investments in Q4 of 2022-23 were almost three times the average in the previous three quarters at almost ₹9.6 lakh crore, with the share of planned manufacturing outlays jumping from an average of 45% of total investments announced in the first three quarters to almost 66%. The overall share of private investments averaged 65% between Q1 to Q3, but jumped to 72% in Q4.
“The manufacturing sector has emerged as the dominant sector in terms of investment, with its share in total fresh investment increasing from 41.93% in 2021-22 to 53.66% in 2022-23, with new projects outlay in the sector more than doubling from ₹8.08 lakh crore in 2021-22 to over ₹19.85 lakh crore in 2022-23,” Projects Today’s 90th Survey of project investments noted. “On the flip side, the number of new manufacturing projects declined from 2,759 in 2021-22 to 1,912 in 2022-23,” it added.
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