New Delhi: The Indian economy is expected to grow by 6.4-6.7 per cent during the current financial year driven by strong domestic demand, even as geopolitical uncertainty poses downside risks, CII President Rajiv Memani said on Thursday.
Addressing his first press conference after taking over as the CII president, Memani observed that factors including a good monsoon forecast, enhanced liquidity emanating from the Reserve Bank’s CRR cut, and interest rate reduction will support the country’s economic growth.
Last month, the central bank announced slashing the Cash Reserve Ratio (CRR) by 100 basis points, which will unlock Rs 2.5 lakh crore liquidity to the banking system for lending to productive sectors of the economy. Benchmark interest rate was cut by 50 basis points to 5.5 per cent.
“We expect (economic growth in) a range of 6.4 to 6.7 per cent,” Memani said in response to a question on CII’s gross domestic product (GDP) forecast for India during 2025-26.
Observing that there are some obvious risks, he said, “a lot of these relate to external trade risk. I think a lot of them have been factored in, and also, there is some upside. So hopefully they should get balanced out… From a CII standpoint, we’re looking at 6.4 to 6.7 per cent growth”. In a presentation, Memani said risks to growth are evenly balanced, and “geopolitical uncertainty” poses downside risks, whereas “strong domestic demand” is an upside.
