GDP Growth Will Recover In H2: Guv Shaktikanta Das

The better projection for the second half is based on healthy Kharif crop production, higher reservoir levels and better Rabi sowing - Shaktikanta Das, RBI Governor

Mumbai: Reserve Bank Governor Shaktikanta Das on Friday exuded confidence that growth in the second half of the fiscal year would be much better than the April-September period even as the central bank significantly trimmed growth projection for FY25 to 6.6 per cent.

The downward revision in growth forecast follows the second quarter GDP print of 5.4 per cent, the lowest in last seven quarters. It was also below 6.7 per cent growth recorded in the first quarter (April-June). India recorded a growth of 6 per cent in the first half (April-September period) of the current fiscal. RBI lowered its growth projection for the current financial year to 6.6 per cent from 7.2 per cent projected earlier.

No plans for de-dollarisation, focus is only on derisking trade

Governor Das said India doesn’t have any plans to ‘de-dollarise’ its trade and is only looking at derisking it by other means. He was responding to a question on US President-elect Donald Trump’s threat that BRICS countries will face 100 per cent tariffs if they choose to move away from the US dollar.

“With regard to the de-dollarisation, etc., so far as India is concerned, there is no step which we have taken which specifically wants to de-dollarise,” Das told reporters at the central bank headquarters here.