India: Economic growth projections worsen

NEW DELHI: India’s economic growth could fall to near 6% this year with the country facing the spectre of its third drought in a decade, a top government policymaker says. In the last few months, the outlook for the once-booming economy has worsened, hit by government policy paralysis, steep interest rates, nose-diving business confidence, the eurozone debt crisis and now growing worry of drought. It comes as private economists also pare their growth estimates for Asia’s third-largest economy, citing concern about “deficient” monsoon rains that sweep India from June to September. A survey of the Associated Chambers of Commerce and Industry of India said the weak monsoon and a deteriorating global situation were expected to lower growth to 6.3%. The projected growth is far below the 7.6% expansion forecast for this year in the Congress-led government’s March budget.

Published in The Express Tribune, August 5^th, 2012.