India’s Growth Slowdown Meets Global Headwinds
The HinduPublished : Jan 10, 2025 18:40 IST - 5 MINS READ Reams of news space were occupied this week by the analysis of the growth snafu that India has hit. The first set of advance estimates for FY25 has pegged India’s real GDP growth at 6.4 per cent. It is also lower than the Reserve Bank of India’s current projection of 6.6 per cent. But the average Indian didn’t need those estimates to spell out that slowdown: a rise in retail-loan defaults, even as personal loan growth has almost halved from a year ago; continually gloomy news on how consumer spending is sputtering; a wash-out year for entry-level cars; and the steady and intense pinch of household inflation. When growth and prospects for India turn limp, will India remain everyone’s friend and continue to enjoy “multiple options” as Foreign Minister S. Jaishankar has often signalled?