Fitch Cuts India’s Credit Outlook to Negative as COVID-19 Hurts Growth, Government Finance

Business06:03 GMT 18.06.2020Get short URL
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New Delhi (Sputnik): For the last few weeks, most rating agencies have predicted massive contractions in economic activities amid a rising number of COVID-19 cases in India. However, Prime Minister Narendra Modi, on Tuesday, claimed that the nation’s economy has begun to look up.

Fitch Ratings has downgraded India’s long-term foreign currency issuer default rating (IDR) from stable to negative, citing an escalated risk to the economy because of the COVID-19 pandemic.

India’s economic activity is likely to contract by 5 percent in the current fiscal year ending March 2021 before rebounding by 9.5% the next year, the agency added.

Earlier this month, another rating agency Moody’s maintained a negative outlook for the country due to worsening fiscal conditions against the backdrop of the coronavirus pandemic.

According to the Indian Ministry of Health and Family Affairs, of the total 366,946 cases, 180,012 people have recovered so far.

India witnessed decade-low growth in the latest data released by the Indian government on 29 May. During the January-March quarter India’s annual national income grew by 3.1 percent, versus 4.7 percent in the October-December 2019 quarter.

Sourse: sputniknews.com