India 'clearly has a problem' finding new drivers for economic growth, JPMorgan's Jahangir Aziz says
India "clearly has a problem" figuring out new drivers for its economic growth even as its economy expands at a fast pace, JPMorgan's Jahangir Aziz said, following the country's union budget.
"If you look at India over the last two years post the pandemic, recorded growth has been strong. But if you look at the drivers of growth, it's essentially these two: Public infrastructure and services export," Aziz, chief emerging markets economist at JPM, told CNBC's "Street Signs Asia" on Tuesday.
The country's finance minister on Tuesday said capital expenditure for fiscal year 2025 will be 11.11 trillion Indian rupees ($133.9 billion) — or 3.4% of GDP — backing India's ambitions to enhance its physical and digital infrastructure as it strives to become a developed nation by 2047.
According to estimates by the Ministry of Commerce and Industry, India's services exports will likely hit $30.3 billion in June, compared with $27.8 billion in the same month last year.
"Services export is sort of stabilizing at a high level, it isn't growing as fast as it was a couple years back," Aziz said, adding that the government should focus on increasing private investments and boosting consumption.
"It is going to be very difficult for India to keep sustaining the 6% to 7% growth rate just on public infrastructure and on services export … The question is, can India broaden its growth drivers to consumption, but more importantly private investment? We haven't seen that happen in a long, long time."
India's chief economic advisor V Anantha Nageswaran said Monday that the economy is expected to grow at 6.5% to 7% in financial year 2025, lower than the Reserve Bank of India's 7.2% growth forecast.
According to the International Monetary Fund's