India’s government is optimistic about hitting its 8 per cent annual economic growth target, buoyed by the prospect of international trade deals. But amid high levels of unemployment and trade uncertainty, economists are cautioning against being too confident.
Shaktikanta Das, one of Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s principal secretaries, told the Financial Times in June that despite the repeated challenges for the country’s economy inflicted by the pandemic, Russia’s invasion of Ukraine and the war in the Middle East, the country’s 8 per cent growth target “should be within striking distance”.