India's growth to remain muted, likely to stay longer than expected: Report

India's economic growth is expected to remain subdued in near future as the slowdown has deepened and is likely to remain extended for a longer duration than previously anticipated, says a report.

According to a Dun & Bradstreet report, a pick-up in the industrial production will only be gradual as investment remains subdued.

Moreover, rural sector demand is likely to remain affected by the recent floods and lower agricultural output.

Besides, most of the sectors from auto to real estate are under stress and this is reflected in the profit margins of the corporate and revenue collections of the government.

"The conundrum of soaring domestic stock market indices in India, slowing growth, rising inflation, and elevated unemployment presents a complex challenge for policymakers to address. The slowdown has deepened and is now expected to remain extended than previously anticipated," said Arun Singh, Chief Economist Dun & Bradstreet India.

He further said that to address the current issue, both the Centre and the state governments should gear up to execute the infrastructure projects in pipeline.

"This would provide employment opportunities for the rural and urban poor. Secondly, it should work towards ensuring that auditing norms become more stringent," Singh said, adding that boosting consumption seems difficult when incomes are not growing, food inflation is rising and governance issues have increased in banking and non-banking sector.

"Reinforcing confidence of stakeholders in the ecosystem will be one of the biggest challenges for the government to tackle; there are no easy fixes," Singh said.

India's GDP growth hit an over six-year low of 4.5 per cent in July-September 2019, dragged mainly by deceleration in manufacturing output and subdued farm sector activity, according to official data released on Friday.

The pace of GDP growth has moderated from the 5 per cent rate in April-June and 7 per cent in July-September quarter of 2018.