India’s GDP tops 8% as mammoth election wraps up

India’s GDP grew by 8.2% in the fiscal year that ended in March, according to data published Friday, in a boost to Prime Minister Narendra Modi just hours before polls close in the country’s six-week-long election that he is expected to win.

The economy expanded at the rate of 7.8% in the final quarter, beating the government’s forecast of 5.9% and setting the stage for India to be the world’s fastest-growing major economy this year. The Managing Director of Operations for the World Bank told CNBC in February that India would need to maintain an annual growth rate of around 8% to realize its ambition of becoming a high-income developed nation by 2047.