Situation pessimistic, aviation, tourism hit hard by coronavirus: Arvind Panagariya

Despite Indian industries, especially aviation and tourism, being hard hit by the Coronavirus, Former Niti Aayog Vice-chairman, Arvind Panagariya is convinced that India will overcome the hurdles caused by COVID-19 lockdown.
In a conversation with ET NOW, talking about the economic repercussions of the 21-day nationwide lockdown in India, Panagariya said, "I have absolutely no doubt in the resilience of India. We have come out of very severe poverty and the prosperity we see around it relatively new. So, we know how to deal with adversity."
"With the growth we have had in the last 20 years, we do have some social safety nets and resources. The government's ability to deal with such adversity and its effects today is a lot better than it was 30 years ago. So, I am quite convinced that we can overcome these hurdles," he added.
It is worth mentioning that Rating agency Fitch on Friday cut its GDP growth forecast for India to 2 per cent for the fiscal year ending March 2021 after lowering it to 5.1 per cent previously. This will make it the slowest growth in India over the past 30 years.
Talking about this Panagariya said, "There is a lot of uncertainty right now as to how the phasing out of the lockdown will play out, how the external trade will be opened, how the flights and transportation etc will be opened. So, today because everything is closed down, it looks overly pessimistic."
"I really think that we did overcome the 2008 financial crisis and came out of it relatively unscathed and started clocking back 8 to 9% growth in those years. No doubt, we will come out of this one as well," he further added. Panagariya mentioned that whether the growth rate will be 2% or not, it will depend on how fast India is able to flatten out the Corona curve. 

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