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India Economic Summit closes with warning of falling growth, “but no crisis”
• India’s economic growth will moderate to between 7% and 7.5%, said Montek S. Ahluwalia, Deputy Chairman of the country’s Planning Commission New Delhi, India, 18 November 2008 – India’s economic growth for 2008-2009 will moderate from 9% to between 7% and 7.5% due to the global financial crisis, Montek S. Ahluwalia, Deputy Chairman of India’s Planning Commission, told participants at the closing plenary of the World Economic Forum’s 24th India Economic Summit. “Even if you take growth at 7%, it is 2% less than what we have had but still higher than what we had four years ago,” he said. “This is not an Indian crisis. We are being impacted by a global crisis.” In a poll of 100 business leaders participating in the Summit that was released at the start of the session, more than 90% of those surveyed identified the need for India to improve the quality of and access to infrastructure as the top priority for the country to secure its future growth and competitiveness. Ahluwalia said that a “contra-cyclical fiscal stimulus” through the speeding the implementation of infrastructure projects already in the pipeline would certainly help economic growth to rebound. “Inflation is not a problem,” he argued. As India addresses the negative effects of the global financial crisis, “coping with the problem is not the issue, it is the uncertainty of not fully understanding the extent of the problem,” said Summit Co-Chair B. Ramalinga Raju, Founder and Chairman of Satyam Computer Services, India. Speaking about the global impact of the crisis, his fellow Co-Chair Henri A. Termeer, Chairman, President and Chief Executive Officer of Genzyme Corporation of the United States, added: “It will get worse for quite a while longer. Unemployment will worsen for the next six months. It is inevitable.” Termeer reckoned that after a long period of robust global growth, a corrective slowdown “is not all bad.” Assessing the action plan outlined by the G20 at its meeting on the financial crisis in Washington DC on 15-16 November, James H. Quigley, Global Chief Executive Officer of global consulting firm Deloitte and another Summit Co-Chair, said that “if the actions by the G20 make a substantial contribution to restoring confidence and public sentiment, that will be huge.” Jeffrey Joerres, Chairman and Chief Executive Officer of the human resources group Manpower, warned against overreacting to the crisis and concluding that capitalism has failed. “What we have is a few things that went wrong, risk management issues that have gone bad.” Ahluwalia reported that the Indian delegation to the G20 summit met the representatives of US President-Elect Barack Obama. He said he believes that the incoming American administration supports the convening of another G20 summit in April, as agreed by the G20 in Washington DC. The G20’s call for a coordinated fiscal stimulus is similar to a proposal already made by Obama, Ahluwalia observed. The World Economic Forum’s 24th India Economic Summit was held in partnership with the Confederation of Indian Industry (CII), with nearly 700 business, government and civil society leaders from over 35 countries participating in the meeting under the theme Securing India's Future Growth. NDTV is the Host Broadcaster of the India Economic Summit. _______________________________________________ Incorporated as a foundation in 1971, and based in Geneva, Switzerland, the World Economic Forum is impartial and not-for-profit; it is tied to no political, partisan or national interests (http://www.weforum.org). |
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