, Columnist
India Can’t Count on Banks to Lead Virus Recovery
The nationwide lockdown will hit the sector in its healthiest spot.
Expect a long downturn.
Photographer: Yawar Nazir/Getty Images AsiaPac
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The world’s largest lockdown is, as expected, taking a toll on the Indian economy. Fitch Ratings Inc. expects that India will grow only 2% in the current financial year. That would be the lowest rate in decades, a level not seen since this country was closed-off socialist backwater.
But everyone knows that fighting a pandemic is costly. What’s even more worrying is how the costs of a slowdown—the sudden pressure on incomes and demand, in particular—will widen pre-existing cracks in the Indian growth story.