The recovery of the world’s sixth largest economy may slow due to the coronavirus pandemic. India also needs foreign aid for oxygen and vaccines, and the first shipments have already arrived.
Medical equipment from all over the world is pouring in to India, where the number of new cases of coronavirus finally fell somewhat on Tuesday, with just over 323,000 cases reported after more than 350,000 on Monday.
However, according to Rego M. Jones, a health economist at the Indian Institute of Management in Kerala, the decrease is largely due to fewer people being tested than before. New Delhi, which arrived in Britain at dawn Tuesday, is the first shipment of hundreds of thousands of ventilators and 95 oxygen concentrators, among other things, and France is sending generators capable of providing enough oxygen for 250 hospital beds in one year.
Bilateral relations have been strained by a year of military confrontation over a disputed border section. It is true that Beijing mainly encourages Chinese companies to cooperate. In addition, the first “oxygen express” from the eastern state of Chhattisgarh arrived in the capital, carrying seventy tons of oxygen, which is the focal point of the epidemic, and the army is also providing its supplies to hospitals.
Fotó: Foreign and Commonwealth Office for Development / Agence France-Presse
The American Chamber of Commerce has warned that the recovery of the world’s sixth largest economy may be halted by the epidemic, and that this will have global consequences.
We expect the situation to deteriorate further before it improves
The Chamber’s executive vice president, Myron Brilliant, told Reuters.
He is not alone in his concerns: Gita Gopinath, chief economist at the International Monetary Fund (IMF), also believes that the new wave of the pandemic may need to change the organization’s previous expectations.
The International Monetary Fund has forecast India’s GDP growth of 12.5 percent and the S&P global rankings of 11 percent in 2021, but the economy may slow in the second quarter.
Oxford Economics has already revised its growth forecast from 11.8 percent to 10.2 percent due to the growing pressure on health, the slowdown in the vaccination campaign and the lack of a compelling government strategy to curb the pandemic.
It’s a warning sign that Nomura’s India Business Activity Index (NIBRI) has dropped 8.5 points, to 75.9, at a depth not seen since last August last week. However, the Japanese Financial Holding Company is optimistic, and expects the economic impact of the epidemic to remain limited in the April-June period. This is based on the fact that sectors such as manufacturing, agriculture, work from home and online services are running resiliently despite the pandemic.
Photo: Faisal Khan / Nour Photo / Agence France-Presse
However, the outlook is hampered by uncertainty over whether there will be more national restrictions
Prime Minister Narendra Modi has so far refused to do so, and he is also encouraging federal states to keep the economy open.
The epidemic in India will also affect vaccination campaigns, especially in developing countries. India is one of the largest manufacturers of vaccines in the world, but it has only released 60 million doses through the international Covax program so far – that’s more than 54 million doses used at home. However, exports have stopped for at least two to three months to meet domestic needs and they are also receiving aid from abroad.
The United States will also give New Delhi an AstraZeneca vaccine that has not yet been approved by the US authorities.
In the United States, Gilead Sciences offered 450,000 doses of the antiviral remdesivir.
