India’s economy will ‘come back with a bang,’ country’s ‘Warren Buffett’ says

22 May, 2019 07:52 / Updated 5 years ago

Billionaire investor Rakesh Jhunjhunwala said he is very bullish about India’s medium-to-long-term growth prospects, predicting double-digit figures.

He told CNBC that the economic situation in the country started to improve after five years of a banking crisis and the introduction of important reforms.

“We are now having improvement in credit culture, we are having integrity come to the fore,” said Jhunjhunwala, who is commonly referred to as the “Warren Buffett of India.”

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According to the investor, the government has taken steps to improve the ease of doing business in the country. “The China-America spat on trade is (also) a great opportunity for India. I don’t see any reason why growth in India will not come back with a bang,” he said.

The country’s growth will likely reach around eight to nine percent in the near future and then jump into double-digit figures in the longer term, Jhunjhunwala suggested.

“We’ve raised our rate of growth in every decade since independence,” he said, adding, “I think India’s sitting on what is going to be the highest level of growth it has ever seen from 2020 to 2030.”

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While many economists, including from the International Monetary Fund, questioned the credibility of government statistics, Jhunjhunwala downplayed the concerns.

“Just because you don’t agree with the figures, you’re suspicious of them, you can’t say the method of calculation is incorrect,” he said. “If they were incorrect, Mr. Raghuram Rajan [23rd Governor of the Reserve Bank of India between 2013 and 2016 – Ed.] should’ve corrected them. When he was the RBI governor, what was he doing?”

The businessman also specified promising sectors on the Indian market for investors. They include aviation, pharmaceuticals, infrastructure, and banking.

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