India's economic growth 'much weaker' than expected due to corporate, environmental regulatory uncertainty, says IMF

Washington: International Monetary Fund or IMF on Thursday said that India’s economic growth is “much weaker” than expected due to corporate and environmental regulatory uncertainty and “lingering weakness” in some non-bank financial companies. “Again, we will have a fresh set of numbers coming up, but the recent economic growth in India is much weaker than expected, mainly due to corporate and environmental regulatory uncertainty and lingering weakness in some non-bank financial companies and risks to the outlook are tilted to the downside, as we like to say,” IMF spokesman Gerry Rice told reporters at a news conference. The economic growth slowed to a seven-year low to 5 percent in April to June quarter from 8 percent a year ago, as per the government data. The International Monetary Fund (IMF) has cut its projection for India’s economic growth by 0.3 percentage points to 7 percent for the fiscal year 2019-20 owing to the “weaker-than-expected outlook” for the domestic demand. [caption id=“attachment_4391191” align=“alignleft” width=“380”]  Representational image. Reuters.[/caption] The growth is expected to rise to 7.2 percent points in FY21, down by the projected growth rate of 7.5 in the earlier report. The slowdown was largely due to a sharp dip in the manufacturing sector and agriculture output, said the Ministry of Statistics and Programme Implementation in a statement. The previous low was recorded at 4.9 percent in April to June 2012-13. Consumer demand and private investment have weakened amid global trade frictions and dampening business sentiment.