“COVID-19 hangs over future like a spectre”, Says RBI amid lockdown

Mumbai/April,9: The Reserve Bank of India (RBI) said on Thursday that the coroanvirus pandemic “hangs over the future, like a spectre”, and the lockdowns will impact the country’s economic activity directly. The global macroeconomic outlook is overcast with the COVID-19 pandemic “with massive dislocations in global production, supply chains, trade and tourism”, the central bank said in its Monetary Policy Report. The RBI report was released as India entered the sixteenth day of a 21-day nationwide lockdown to curb the spread of coronavirus (COVID-19), stalling business in an already-slowing economy.
The RBI said the coronavirus outbreak has sharply altered the country’s economic recovery. “Prior to the outbreak of COVID-19, the outlook for growth for 2020-21 was looking up… The COVID-19 pandemic has drastically altered this outlook,” the RBI said. Describing the present environment as “highly fluid”, the central bank said that it is assessing the “the intensity, spread and duration of COVID-19”. “COVID-19, the accompanying lockdowns and the expected contraction in global output in 2020 weigh heavily on the growth outlook,” the RBI said.