Crashing economy, bare cupboard: Costs of pandemic are piling up for India

India might still have managed the economic storm if its Covid-19 case total was not exploding as well

India is reeling from a quadruple whammy that is practically unique even during this pandemic. First, growth has taken a hit that appears to be larger than any of its peers, with GDP shrinking 23.9% in the first post-pandemic quarter. While the economy has re-opened somewhat since then, it remains beset by supply constraints. That means — second — that inflation may have reached almost 7%, according to Bloomberg Economics’ Abhishek Gupta.

That’s well out of the Reserve Bank of India’s comfort zone. And, third, all this has hit an economy that was already suffering from slipping potential growth and