Hyderabad: With more than 150 confirmed cases, and three deaths within a span of last one week, the threat of novel coronavirus has become all the more real for a developing economy like India. It forced the government to order closure of public places like schools, hotels, shopping malls, clubs and other crowded public places, significantly affecting the business activity. A top economist told ETV Bharat that the growth will be significantly impacted due to Covid-19 outbreak.
“In our earlier estimate, we had projected that the economy will grow by 5.5% in FY 2020-21. And given the unfolding situation, it is clear that the growth will now be less than that,” said Sunil Sinha, Principal Economist of India Ratings, a Fitch company.
Sunil Sinha said India Ratings was in the process of making its estimate on the economic impact of Covid-19 on India as the situation was still unfolding and the country was not in a complete lockdown mode unlike China.
“At present, India is at stage 2, and it depends on how well we manage if we slide towards stage 3 because the situation is extremely fluid,” he said.
“The government has not yet ordered a complete lockdown unlike China’s Wuhan province but these restrictions are expected to significantly impact GDP growth,” said Sunil Sinha.
“My own estimate is that GDP growth will come down below our earlier estimate of 5.5% GDP growth for FY 2020-21,” he told ETV Bharat.
The outbreak of coronavirus could not have come at a worse time for Indian economy as it was already in the grip of a systematic slowdown for the last more than one year.
In the third quarter of this fiscal (October-December 2019), the GDP growth was recorded at 4.7%, the slowest in the last six years.
