Moody’s lowers India's GDP growth forecast for 2022 from 9.5% to 9.1%

Moody’s on Thursday lowered its forecast for gross domestic product (GDP) growth in India to 9.1 per cent in 2022 from 9.5 per cent. The credit ratings major expects the economy to expand 5.4 per cent in 2023. High fuel and fertiliser costs will weigh on government finances down the road, potentially limiting its planned capital spending, Moody’s said. The revisions, it said, also factor in the somewhat stronger underlying momentum not accounted for previously. Official data late last month showed the country’s GDP grew at a lower-than-expected 5.4 per cent in the October-December period. Economists in a CNBC-TV18 poll had pegged GDP growth in the third quarter of the current financial year at 5.7 per cent. In its Global Macro Outlook for 2022-23, the agency said economic growth will suffer as the fallout from Russia’s invasion of Ukraine builds. Moody sees the risks of damagingly high input costs and consumer inflation over an extended period due to the spike in commodity prices.  It said that disruption in financial and business operations poses risks to the highly integrated global economy. Heightened security and geopolitical risks will exert economic costs and dent sentiment, it said. Moody’s now expects G20 economies to expand 3.6 per cent collectively in 2022, as against 4.3 per cent earlier, and three per cent in 2023. It expects Russia’s economy shrinking by seven per cent in 2022, and three per cent in 2023 – the only G20 economy it sees contracting this year. Moody’s also warned that in alternative downside scenarios, the global economy could tip into a recession. The credit ratings agency’s outlook follows a 25-basis-point hike in pandemic-era interest rates by the Federal Reserve on 16 March, 2022, – its first increase in more than three years. The US central bank has signalled one hike at each of the remaining six FOMC meetings this year.   Read all the Latest News , Trending News ,  Cricket News , Bollywood News , India News and Entertainment News here. Follow us on Facebook, Twitter and Instagram.