The coronavirus epidemic can impact India’s March quarter GDP growth by 0.20 per cent as imports from China for crucial sectors have got affected, a foreign brokerage said on Monday.
The country’s economic growth is already sagging and is set to slide to a decadal low of 5 per cent in 2019-20 as per official estimates. Data for the December 2019 quarter released last week said growth had slid to a seven-year low of 4.7 per cent.
Two cases tested positive for the coronavirus infection in India on Monday, after the initial set of three cases in Kerala were successfully treated.
In a report, UBS Securities said sectors such as electronics, pharmaceuticals and automobiles can see supply disruptions in value chain, which may lead to a derailment of the domestic economic growth.
The brokerage also cut its fiscal 2020-21 real GDP growth estimate marginally to 5.6 per cent as against the previous estimate of 5.7 per cent, but added that there will be a recovery in the next financial year.