The industry body, Confederation of Indian Industry (CII) has stated that India’s economic growth of 8.2% in the first quarter of 2018-19 is an outcome of key reforms initiated by the government like Goods and Services Tax (GST) and liberalisation of Foreign Direct Investment (FDI) norms. It also said that India can garner a Gross Domestic Product (GDP) growth of 7.3-7.7% for the ongoing financial year with the help of increase in private investment and enhanced government spending.
CII President Rakesh Bharti Mittal said that the country could see strong demand contributing to higher GDP growth this fiscal with good monsoons so far. He noted that GST, reforms in Ease of Doing Business, FDI, labour, agriculture, and many other initiatives aimed at improving the overall investment climate and productivity have begun to show impact. He added ‘These have collectively contributed to the robust GDP figures that we saw for June quarter 2018-19. At 8.2% it is a significant improvement over the 5.6% registered a year back.’
As per the CII President, the reforms have also led to increased demand leading to better capacity utilisation and higher growth of the industry, which again is reflected in manufacturing growth at an impressive 13% plus in the first quarter. However, he said that a few external challenges remain, in the form of oil prices and hardening interest rates in the US, but domestic strengths are robust enough to ensure that India would ride over any bumps on the road. CII claimed that the results of a poll conducted among its National Council CEOs are the most positive in a long time.
