Covid-19 impact: GDP to contract 16.5% in first quarter, says SBI report

SBI Research has projected gross domestic product (GDP) contraction at 16.5 per cent in the first quarter of 2020-21, against a 30 per cent decline estimated earlier.
 

It attributed the revision mainly to smaller gross value added (GVA) degrowth by listed companies for the quarter.
 

SBI Group Chief Economic Advisor Soumya Kanti Ghosh said in principle revenue decline of listed companies had been far outstripped by cost rationalisation, thereby not impacting margins. The worrying part of the story is that there has been a rapid surge in Covid cases in the rural heartland. The numbers for Q1 are slated to