S&P pegs India growth at 6.5%

S&P Global Ratings on Tuesday cut India’s GDP growth projections to 6.5% for the next fiscal as it expects economies in the APAC region will feel the strain of rising US tariffs and pushback on globalisation.

In its Economic Outlook for Asia-Pacific (APAC), S&P said despite these external strains, it expects domestic demand momentum to remain solid in most emerging-market economies.

“India’s GDP will grow 6.5% in the fiscal year ending March 31, 2026, we expect. Our forecast is the same as the outcome for the previous fiscal year, but less than our earlier forecast of 6.7%,” S&P said.

The forecast assumes that the upcoming monsoon season will be normal and that commodity — especially crude — prices will be soft.

Cooling food inflation, the tax benefits announced in the country’s budget for the fiscal year ending March 2026, and lower borrowing costs will support discretionary consumption in India, S&P said.

The global credit rating agency expects central banks in the Asia Pacific region to continue cutting benchmark interest rates through this year.

“The Reserve Bank of India will cut interest rates by another 75 bp-100 bp in the current cycle, we project. Easing food inflation and lower crude prices will move headline inflation closer to the central bank target of 4% in the fiscal year ending March 2026 and fiscal policy is contained,” S&P said.

Last month, the Reserve Bank of India (RBI) had reduced the repo rate by 25 basis points from 6.50% to 6.25% in its monetary policy review.

Losing 3% of GDP due to accidents, says Gadkari

India is losing 3% of its GDP due to around 5 lakh road accidents annually, Union Minister Nitin Gadkari said on Tuesday.

The most important problem for the country is road accidents, Gadkari said, noting that every year India sees 4,80,000 accidents, which lead to 1,88,000 deaths of people aged between 18 and 45 years.

The minister raised concerns that 10,000 deaths are of children below 18 years.

Gadakri said, “It is one of the major public health issue and the most important thing is also, we are losing 3 per cent of GDP because of road accidents.”