The national income data, released by the National Statistical Office (NSO) on Tuesday, was awaited for a variety of reasons. It had the gross domestic product (GDP) estimates for the third quarter (October-December 2022) of this fiscal year. The headline year-on-year (YoY) growth numbers for the first two quarters of this fiscal year were influenced by a weak base as economic recovery in the first half of 2021-22 was constrained by the second wave of the pandemic. Thus, the third-quarter number was expected to indicate the real strength of the economy. Most analysts expected the headline growth number to be lower than the first and second quarters. As the NSO numbers showed, the economy expanded by 4.4 per cent during the quarter, which was in line with the Reserve Bank of India’s (RBI’s) projection.