Demonetisation was a catastrophe: Marc Faber

Demonetisation was a catastrophe which couldn't achieve the objectives it aimed for, Marc Faber, editor and publisher of economic and financial publication 'The Gloom, Boom and Doom Report', said on Friday.

"We all know demonetisation has been a catastrophe. It didn't achieve its objectives. It could have been done in a benign way, giving a period of six months wherein old notes could be exchanged so that nobody suffered," Faber told BTVi in an interview.

He said that the move was based on academics wherein the people in the government had no clue of how the market functioned.

Faber said the note ban did aim at targeting organised crime, which gets a boost from abundance of cash. But they too have other means to lend out money these days, he added.

Touching upon the Goods and Services Tax (GST), he said that the rates are quite high under the new indirect tax regime, which would encourage black marketing.

Demonetisation and GST roll-out also affected India's growth rate, which slumped to 5.7 per cent during April-June.

The editor said that Prime Minister Narendra Modi however had good ideas and intentions and it would be good for the economy if it could grow at 5 per cent for the next 10-20 years.

"For me, if India can grow at 5 per cent for next 10-20 years, that is a fantastic growth rate. But most Indians, they think their country should grow at 8-10 per cent. Forget it. Five per cent is a fantastic growth rate in a world burdened by high debt. For India, burdened by bad debts, 5 per cent is a fantastic growth rate," he said.

Faber said that all the emerging markets have outperformed United States and the trend wold continue.

He said that there was optimism in investors about India and they look forward to invest in the Asian countries.

"The sentiment about India is relatively optimistic. The market has relatively performed well. We are not interested in the next six months but next 20 years. US is not going to grow much. People will look more and more towards Asia as having a bright future, though not problem free," he said.

"In terms of new industries, we have so many global companies out of India and China, which didn't exist 20 years ago. We have global players from Asia. The long term outlook is fine. Though, in my view, China's markets are relatively depressed," he added.

--IANS

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