INSUBCONTINENT EXCLUSIVE:
India is particularly vulnerable to high oil prices, Moody's said.New Delhi: Moody's on Thursday slashed India's growth estimate for the
current year to 9.1 per cent, from 9.5 per cent earlier, saying high fuel and fertilizer import bill could limit the government's capital
expenditure.In its Global Macro Outlook 2022-23 (March 2022 Update) titled: Economic Growth will suffer as fallout from Russia's invasion of
Ukraine builds, the rating agency said that India's growth is likely to be 5.4 per cent in 2023.It said India is particularly vulnerable to
high oil prices, given that it is a large importer of crude oil
Because India is a surplus producer of grain, agricultural exports will benefit in the short-term from high prevailing prices."High fuel and
potentially fertilizer costs would weigh on government finances down the road, potentially limiting planned capital spending."For all of
these reasons, we have lowered our 2022 growth forecasts for India by 0.4 percentage point
We now expect the economy to grow by 9.1 pc this year," Moody's Investors Service said.It said that the forecast revisions also factor in
the somewhat stronger underlying momentum than the agency had not accounted for previously.
