Expect market recovery from July: Indian govt's chief economic advisor on Covid-19 impact

The second wave of the coronavirus disease (Covid-19) has affected India's economic recovery but with speedy vaccination and the removal of lockdown-related restrictions the economy is expected to start recovering from July, said Krishnamurthy Subramanian, the chief economic adviser (CEA) to the Government of India.

In an interview with news agency ANI, the CEA shared his projections on India's economic growth in the wake of the pandemic and what it means for the country's fiscal deficit and disinvestment targets.

"Covid-19 is not going to impact our fiscal deficit target and disinvestment target," said chief economic advisor KV Subramanian to ANI. He explained that the prediction of good economic growth and investment by developed nations in the Indian stock market has caused it to reach a record high. "The stock market is at a record high as investors believe that the Indian economy will do well," the news agency quoted Subramanian as saying.

Speaking on India's vaccination target, he said that inoculating the entire population is possible by December. For this, Subramanian laid down a clear roadmap. "If we vaccinate people in three shifts each day, then we can vaccinate one crore people in a day," he explained, pointing out that this way India will be able to achieve vaccination for all by the end of the year. "This is definitely ambitious, but not impossible," he added.

India's chief economic advisor expressed hope that the country's economy will turn around by the next month, acknowledging that the second wave of the pandemic affected its initial recovery. "Now, states have started removing restrictions and if we speed up vaccinations, our economy will start recovering," said CEA KV Subramanian in the interview with the news agency.

India on Thursday added 134,154 new cases to its coronavirus disease (Covid-19) tally, while 2,887 deaths reported in the last 24 hours pushed its toll to 337,989, according to the Union health ministry data. The country witnessed a rise of over 2,000 in the number of new infections since Wednesday as it continues to recover from the deadly second wave of the contagion.