Economic Survey 2020-21: Agree with 11% GDP growth target for FY22, says Uday Kotak

Uday Kotak, chief executive officer (CEO) of Kotak Mahindra Bank and President of Confederation of Indian Industry (CII) decoding the fine print of the Economic Survey 2020-21, on Friday said he agreed with 11 percent gross domestic product (GDP) growth target for FY22.

The Economic Survey 2020-21, tabled in the Parliament by Finance Minister Nirmala Sitharaman on Friday, has forecast India's FY22 real GDP growth at 11 percent. The nominal GDP growth is estimated at 15.4 percent.

Speaking in an interview to CNBC-TV18, Kotak said, “I agree broadly with the Chief Economic Adviser’s (Krishnamurthy Subramanian) number of 11 percent GDP growth in the next year but we must keep in mind that it is of a lower base; there has been a negative base for the current year and therefore, 11 percent is not a sustainable number but a number specifically for the next year.”

“Having said that I do believe that the recovery is getting momentum and we must do everything to nurture and protect it and in that context the fact that the fiscal deficit for the current year will be higher than anticipated has created some stimulus. Therefore, the way to ensure that this recovery nurtures in line with what the survey says is to withdraw the level of fiscal deficit more gradually,” he said.

On ratings front, he said, “I would like to highlight the fact that when the rating agencies look at India’s debt, they look at the central government’s debt, they look at the state government’s debt and they look at the off-balance sheet debt and therefore, we need to ensure that we have a more transparent picture of our total debt as we look at our relative ratings in this world.”

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