Barclays has said that India could face economic losses of $38.4 billion if the ongoing localised lockdowns continue till June.
“As India’s second Covid-19 wave continues, there is growing uncertainty around the number of cases and fatalities. Slowing vaccinations are also hurting India’s recovery prospects. We lower our FY 2021-22 GDP growth forecast by 1 per cent to 10.0 per cent to reflect this uncertainty,” Barclays said in a report.
Business leaders’ concern
This comes even as Indian business leaders have called for tighter restrictions to control the rising number of deaths. “Given the current pandemic situation, safeguarding lives is of utmost priority and nationwide maximal response measure at the highest level is called for to cut the transmission links,” said Uday Kotak, President, CII. He added, “At this critical juncture when toll of lives is rising, CII urges the strongest national steps including curtailing economic activity to reduce suffering.”
Sajjan Jindal, Chairman & MD, JSW had recently said, “Saving lives is more important than producing steel and production can suffer for as long as the country is in need of any resource available with the company.”