The lower-than-expected growth was led by an upward adjustment in the base year GDP, Pranjul Bhandari, chief India economist at HSBC said, adding that the level of output compared to pre-pandemic quarters continued to improve. The level of output at the end of December 2022 was 11.6% higher than the pre-pandemic 2019 quarter, said Bhandari. This is an improvement from September, when output was 9.4% above the comparable pre-pandemic quarter, she added.