India’s GDP Growth Rate ‘Much Weaker’ Than Expected, Says IMF
The risks to the outlook are tilted to the downside, IMF says, adding that it will continue to monitor the Indian economy.
The International Monetary Fund has said that India’s economic growth is “much weaker” than expected due to corporate and environmental regulatory uncertainty and lingering weaknesses in some non-banking financial companies.
India’s GDP growth rate slipped to a six-year-low of 5 percent in the April-June quarter of 2019-20, data from the Central Statistics Office showed Aug. 30.
The IMF had in July cut its India’s growth forecast for 2019 and 2020 by 0.3 percentage points to 7 percent and 7.2 percent, respectively. India will still be the fastest growing major economy in the world, much ahead of China, the Washington D.C.-based Bretton Woods institute said.
“We will have a fresh set of numbers coming up, but the recent economic growth in India is much weaker than expected, mainly due to corporate and environmental regulatory uncertainty and lingering weakness in some NBFCs,” IMF Spokesperson Gerry Rice said in Washington D.C. on Thursday.
The risks to the growth outlook are tilted to the downside, he said, adding that IMF will continue to monitor the economic situation of the country. “We will update that assessment in the upcoming world economic outlook,” Rice said.