Tag: FY21

A credit rating agency India Ratings and Research (Ind-Ra) has reduced India’s Fiscal Year 2021 gross domestic product (GDP) growth to 1.9% from 3.6%, announced in March 2020. The GDP growth has been slashed by the credit rating agency citing the assumption of the partial lockdown to continue in India till mid-May 2020 due to the COVID-19 pandemic.

Fitch Ratings lowered India's economic growth forecast for current fiscal year 2020-21 to 0.8 per cent from 1.8 per cent estimated barely three days ago, citing fall in consumer spending and fixed investment due to extension of coronavirus lockdown and disruption in economic activities. On April 20, Fitch had projected a 1.8 per cent GDP growth for India in financial year 2021. As per Fitch's global economic outlook released, India's gross domestic product (GDP) growth will slump to 0.8 per cent in FY21 as compared to an estimated 4.9 per cent growth in FY20. The decline in GDP growth was attributed to a projected fall in consumer spending to just 0.3 per cent in FY21 from 5.5 per cent a year back and a 3.5 per cent contraction in fixed investment.

The Central government after exercising its power conferred under clause (iii) of section 3 of Government securities Act 2006has launched a new series of the Sovereign Gold Bond (SGB) Scheme namely “Sovereign Gold Bond 2020-21” which is to be issued by Reserve Bank of India (RBI) in six tranches from April 2020 to September 2020 i.e. in first half of FY 20-21. Their sale will be restricted to resident individuals, HUFs, Trusts, Universities and Charitable Institutions. These bonds will fetch a fixed interest rate of 50% per annum which will be taxable under Income Tax Act, 1961. On the other hand, capital gains tax arising on redemption of SGB to an individual has been exempted.

Asian Development Bank (ADB) in its Asian Development Outlook (ADO) 2020 has forecasted a slowdown in Indian economic growth to 4%for the financial year 2020-21 due to the current global health emergency raised by COVID-19. For FY 21-22 it has predicted Indian economic growth to 6.2%. On the region front, Asia and Pacific is expected to decline to 2.2% in FY 20-21 and then rebound to 6.2% in 2021. Also, the growth in South Asiawill downgrade to 4.1% in FY 20-21 and then recover to 6% in FY 21-22. About ADB: Establishment– 1966 Headquarter– Philippines, Manila

The RBI is likely to cut benchmark interest rate by another 100 bps in 2020-21 fiscal and continue to employ all policy tools at its disposal to support growth and financial stability to contain the impact of Covid-19 pandemic on the economy. Growth will face significant headwinds over the coming quarters due to the Covid-19 impact and we have accordingly revised our FY2020/21 (April-March) real GDP growth forecast to 4.6 per cent, from 5.4 per cent previously, marking a slowdown from our estimate of 4.9 per cent in FY2019/20.

Standard & Poor(S&P)Global Ratings has slashed down India’s growth forecast to 5% from 5.2% for the Financial Year(FY)21. Key points The growth rate has been slashed due to the deteriorating credit conditionsin the Asia-Pacific region as a result of Covid-19 outbreak. It also expects a sharp growth at 7.3%  in the Indian economy 7.3% in FY22 & also has lowered India’s growth rate to 5.2% from 5.7% before lockdown. About S&P: Headquarters– New York, United States.

Fitch Ratings slashes its growth forecast for India from 5.6% to 5.1% for 2020-21, as Covid-19 hit Indian manufacturers after supply chain disruptions in China. Fitch joins a chorus of international agencies that have made similar observations in recent days. Standard and Poor’s (S&P) on Wednesday had slashed its 2020 growth projection for India from 5.7% to 5.2% as it feared that the Asia Pacific region may slide into a recession, with countries enforcing lock-downs to contain the pandemic. Moody’s and the Organisation for Economic Cooperation and Development (OECD) have cut their 2020 growth projections for India to 5.3% and 5.1%, respectively.