In the third quarter, the Indian economy grew by 7.9%, which was spurred by an $80 billion stimulus package, as the country's consumers displayed a strong appetite for spending.

Business Week magazine reports that, "India's $1.2 trillion economy may be among the world's first to come roaring out of the global recession, as government data showed it grew by 7.9% in the quarter ended on Sept. 30, the largest growth since the Indian government started releasing the figures in 1996. Industry grew 9.2%, compared with 5.1% in the year-earlier quarter. 'These recent figures may well signal that the worst effects of the global financial crisis have passed for the economy,' says Anuj Chande, head of the South Asia Group at Grant Thornton, which advises companies doing business in Asia."

The figures released on Nov. 30, have economists pondering whether to raise their estimates for full-year gross domestic product growth in India; the average estimate presently stands at approximately 6.5%. Meanwhile, the government has announced it anticipates the Indian economy to grow by 7% to 8% by the end of the fiscal year in March 2010, and hit 9% the year after. Robert Prio-Wandesforde, Singapore-bases economist for HSBC, says, "our own 6.2% number for the current fiscal year is certainly looking on the low side."

According to Business Week, "it's an interesting turnaround by the Indian economy, which spent the period from October 2008 to March 2009 on government-sponsored life support - some $80 billion in tax cuts and other benefits int he form of a stimulus. Without the stimulus, growth in those two quarters would have been less than 1%; the stimulus pushed it to 5.8%."

Since then, the Indian Stock Exchange rebounded significantly, which has risen 72% for the year. The Indian coprporations have expanded the rising market to rake in billions of dollars in share sales, utilizing the liquidity to pay down debt, prop production, and even ponder overseas acquisitions, which included a $12 billion bid by Reliance Industries, India's biggest private company, for Lyondell Bassell, a Dutch chemicals manufacturer. Prior-Wandersforde says, "as upside surprises go, this was a big one. This was an extraordinary result."

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