Highlighting India's Failure To Address Economic Slowdown, Moody's Lowers Country's Ratings

For the past few years, India is fighting the rising figures of unemployment and economic slowdown. And adding worries to woes for the almost dormant government reluctant to address the elephant in the room, ratings¡¯ agency Moody¡¯s has changed its outlook on India's ratings to "negative" from "stable", citing increasing risks that the country's economic growth will remain lower than in the past.

The outlook partly reflects government and policy ineffectiveness in addressing economic weakness, which led to an increase in debt burden from already high levels, the ratings agency said.

India¡¯s economy grew only 5.0 per cent year-on-year between April and June, its weakest pace since 2013, as consumer demand and government spending slowed amid global trade frictions.

According to a report by Reuters, Moody¡¯s said it estimates that the country's growth slowdown is in part long-lasting while backing its other ratings for India.

AFP

For the 11th straight month, domestic passenger vehicle sales dropped by 23.69 per cent in September to 2,23,317 units, down from 2,92,660 units in the year ago period.

Domestic car sales were down 33.4 per cent to 1,31,281 units.

Last month as against 1,97,124 units in September 2018, according to data released by the Society of Indian Automobile Manufactures (SIAM) in October.

The Centre for Monitoring Indian Economy (CMIE), in its most recent report, highlighted that India¡¯s unemployment rate has hit a three-year low.

The unemployment rate rose to a three-year high of 8.48 per cent in October, up from 7.2 per cent in September. The unemployment rate for the month is highest since August 2016, reflecting an overall economic downturn in the country.

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The unemployment rate in September was 7.16 per cent, while it was 8.19 per cent in August. The last time the unemployment rate was higher was in August 2016 at 9.59 per cent.

The National Sample Survey Office¡¯s (NSSO) job survey for 2017-18, which was buried by the Prime Mjnister Narendra Modi-led government, had shown a spike in the unemployment rate to over 6 per cent, a 45-year high.

The finance ministry later issued a statement which said that comparing the recent jobs data with past data was faulty.

Finance Minister Nirmala Sitharaman recently hinted at more economic reforms in the future, said the economy was a topic in every election, and ¡°the voter sees there is a genuine attempt to build [the] economy¡±, The Indian Express had reported.