Fitch lowers India's economic growth projections to 7.8%

NEW DELHI: Global rating agency Fitch has lowered India's economic growth projections to 7.8 per cent for the current fiscal from 8 per cent earlier.

Fitch, however, said it expects that India's GDP growth rate this year to surpass China's for the first time since 1999, forecasting an acceleration to 8.1 per cent in 2016-17 before settling back to 8.0 per cent in 2017-18.

"The implementation of structural reforms and resulting pick-up in investment remain key themes for India's growth outlook, and recent data confirm the strengthening demand," Fitch said.

While maintaining the expectation for an increase in growth, Fitch lowered its real GDP growth forecasts for India to 7.8 per cent and 8.1 per cent from 8.0 per cent and 8.3 per cent for FY16 and FY17, respectively.

"The extent and pace at which reforms translate into higher rates of growth continues to be dependent on implementation, and there are signs that acceleration may be slower than previously expected," it said.

Emerging Asia will continue to experience relatively high rates of growth over the medium term as economic prospects remain starkly divergent across emerging markets, according to Fitch Ratings' latest Global Economic Outlook report.

"Growth should improve steadily through to 2017 for emerging Asia excluding China on aggregate. This should occur even as China continues to experience a gradual structural slowdown," it said.