The World Bank has forecast India’s real gross domestic product growth to be 5.4 percent for fiscal year 2021-22, primarily due to the low base effect of the current year. However, unlike most other agencies, the multilateral organization has not upgraded its forecast for 2020-21, and still projects India’s economy to contract by 9.6 percent this year.

“In India, growth is expected to recover to 5.4 percent in 2021-22, as the rebound from a low base is offset by muted private investment growth given financial sector weaknesses. The pandemic will likely lower potential growth, including through eroding human capital and investment growth,” the World Bank said in its Global Economic Prospect report on January 5.

For the South Asia region, the agency projected a growth of 3.3 percent in calendar year 2021 and 3.8 percent in calendar year 2022.

After the much improved GDP numbers in the July-September quarter, when the economy contracted by 7.5 percent compared to 23.9 percent in the April-June quarter, dozens of agencies narrowed their contraction forecast for the full year 2020-21.

Among other multilateral agencies for example, the OECD now projects India’s economy to contract 9.9 percent from 10.2 percent earlier, while the Asian Development Bank sees a contraction of 8 percent, from 9 percent earlier. The World Bank has kept its forecast unchanged.

News Source:- Moneycontrol