India Growth Lowered

Global brokerage firm UBS has lowered India’s GDP growth forecast to 6.6% for this fiscal from 7.2% earlier, Moneycontrol reported. The brokerage said that the growth is expected to pick up in coming quarters as the economy normalizes post implementation of the Goods and Services Tax. Notwithstanding the downward revision in growth forecast, the global financial services major said the structural growth story of the country remains intact thanks to the ongoing reform push by policymakers and consumption demand. “We are revising down our forecasts for India’s GDP growth to 6.6% year-on-year and 7.4% year-on- year in 2017-18 and 2018-19, respectively (as against our earlier estimates of 7.2% and 7.7%),” said the report authored by Tanvee Gupta Jain, an economist with UBS. According to official data, India’s economic growth slipped to a three-year low of 5.7% in April-June quarter as disruptions caused by demonetization spilled over to the third straight quarter amid a slowdown in manufacturing activities.