Barclays pegs economic cost of lockdown at $234 bn; sees no growth in 2020

Barclays has pegged the economic cost of the lockdown, which has now been extended till May 3 with caveats, at $234.4 billion (8.1 per cent of gross domestic product, or GDP), assuming that India will remain under partial lockdown at least till May-end.

Given this backdrop, Barclays has revised down their GDP growth forecast further to 0 per cent for calendar year 2020 (CY20) from 2.5 per cent earlier, and to 0.8 per cent for FY20-21 (from 3.5 per cent earlier). CY21 GDP growth forecast, too, has been slashed to 7.5 per cent from 8 per cent earlier. 

Those at