Hyderabad: Calling India a huge market that has long been seen as the next 'world’s factory', China has joined an increasing group of entities that have forecast dim times for the Indian economy up ahead.
On Tuesday, the Chinese government’s mouthpiece ‘Global Times’ wrote in its editorial, largely seen as reflecting the China government stand: “India also needs to stimulate the market to inject new vitality into its economy and usher in social changes. But it's seeing growing resistance, which is especially stubborn amid today's economic downturn. India's GDP growth fell to 4.5 percent in the September quarter, down from the 8 percent or so level recorded 18 months earlier,” the article added.
Interestingly, indicating that most business events in India are followed closely by China, the article pointed out to the tepid response to the India visit by the world’s richest man and retail giant Amazon founder and CEO Jeff Bezos last week.
“His (Bezos’) three-day visit was overshadowed by anti-Amazon protests and critical comments from officials… What Amazon is facing points to the predicament for India's economic development… India's economic development is facing a dead end, and its government can hardly find an efficient solution to that problem”, said the report.
In China, media reports have to be vetted by the government, so in a way, they reflect the government’s stand and line of thought.
It is also believed that the Indian government may not too be keen on a strong Amazon grasp in India as it may impact the local retail industry.
On Friday, the United Nations in its report 'World Economic Situation and Prospects 2020', forecast dismal times ahead for the Indian economy saying it will be several years before the previous levels of rapid growth are achieved. The report had warned of a strong downside tilt that could worsen due to “deepening political polarization and increasing skepticism over the benefits of multilateralism”.
And a week before the UN report, it was the World Bank in its annual report “Global Economic Prospects” which predicted: “Risks to the (India’s) growth outlook remain tilted to the downside and relate primarily to financial sector vulnerabilities, geopolitical tensions, and lack of progress on reforms. Although recent tensions between India and Pakistan have abated, a re-escalation would damage confidence and weigh on investment in the region”.
In its report released on December 5, 2019, the Paris-headquartered OECD, an international organisation of 36 the world’s most economically developed countries, had also expressed concern at India's slower pace of growth. Its worry highlighted the heavy concentration of wealth with the richest 1 percent of Indians holding over half of the country’s wealth, deceleration in private and consumption particularly rural, slow industrial production, liquidity worries in the non-banking financial companies (NBFCs), fuel price volatility, etc.
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