The Indian economy may have seen its worst GDP contraction in the April-June quarter since the unplanned lockdown owing to the COVID-19 pandemic last year.
A report by UBS Securities India, a subsidiary of a Swiss brokerage firm, indicated that the second round of lockdowns imposed across the country during Q1 FY2022 (April 1-June 30, 2021) may have led to the GDP contracting 12pc. This compares to a 23.9pc contraction witnessed in the same quarter last year.
Still, the economy had shown great resilience and witnessed a sharp V-shaped recovery in the second half of FY2021 when it grew by 40 percentage points to a growth of 1.6pc, the report stated. This time around, however, while the contraction is much lower than last year, the Indian economy is likely to miss the V-shaped recovery it witnessed last year, UBS Securities noted.
However, the shorter lockdown period this year will help the country towards a slower but sustained recovery, UBS indicated, on improvements in the vaccine roll-out in the region.