Moody’s lowers India GDP forecast for FY20

Citing feeble household consumption, global ratings agency Moody’s Investors Service lowered India’s gross domestic product growth projection for the fiscal year 2019-20 to 4.9% from 5.8%.

In the July-September quarter this year, the country’s GDP ell to 6-year low of 4.5% during July-September quarter, from 5% in the preceding quarter. This spell of contraction has been the longest slowdown in the past 23 years.

“What was once an investment-led slowdown has now broadened into weakening consumption, driven by financial stress among rural households on the back of stagnating agricultural wage growth and constrained productivity, as well as weak job creation due to rigid land and labor laws,” said Deborah Tan, a Moody’s Assistant Vice President and Analyst.