Union minister Pankaj Chaudhary has said that Indian economy is showing signs of revival since the peaking of the second COVID wave in the first half of May on the back of targeted fiscal relief, strong push for capital expenditure, RBI's monetary policy measures, and a rapid vaccination drive. India's real Gross Domestic Product (GDP) is estimated to grow 0.5 percent in Q3 and 1.6 percent in Q4 of 2020-21, leading to an upward revision in annual real GDP growth from (-)8.0 percent (2nd advance estimates) to (-)7.3 percent.
The minister noted that the momentum of economic recovery was, however, moderated by the onset of the second wave of COVID. According to him, the government has formulated a multi-pronged strategy to ensure that the prices of essential commodities like pulses and oilseeds remain controlled. The strategy includes the issuance of orders imposing stock limits on pulses applicable to wholesalers, retailers, millers, and importers with effect from July 2 and increasing the number of price monitoring centers under the Price Monitoring Scheme.
Citing RBI's Monetary Policy Committee's (MPC) resolution on June 4, the minister said the rising trajectory of international commodity prices, especially of crude, together with logistics costs, pose upside risks to the inflation outlook. However, he said these cost pressures are expected to be mitigated by a normal south-west monsoon, comfortable buffer stocks, recent supply-side interventions in pulses market, declining caseload of COVID and gradual easing of movement restriction across states.