India’s gross domestic product (GDP) shrank at 7.5% in September quarter, a contraction much narrower than feared by many, including the Reserve Bank of India (RBI), official data showed, as resilient consumers kept producers on their toes and let the economy claw its way out of the pandemic’s deep pit. The economy contracted at a record 23.9% in the first quarter of the fiscal; that was the steepest slide among G-20 countries. Though robust release of pent-up demand and relatively buoyant rural economy —thanks to fortuitous good monsoon — have driven the recovery, the jury is out on whether and how strongly it will be sustained, now that the festival fervour has subsided.