News, Sept. 23 -- Union finance minister Nirmala Sitharaman on Tuesday exuded confidence that the economy will grow at the strong pace witnessed in the June quarter despite external headwinds.

The economy expanded at a higher-than-expected rate of 7.8% in the three months through June from a year ago, as investment jumped and private consumption growth inched up.

"I think the Q1 (FY27) growth showed the way, and I am very confident we will continue at that pace this year despite all the odds...I am confident that the budget, as presented on 1 February, will take us through this year with a comparable sort of growth as we saw in the first quarter," she said at an event of the Hindu Business Line newspaper.

Responding to a question on th...