The Asian Development Bank (ADB) has lowered India’s growth projections for the current financial year by a percentage point to 10%, mainly due to disruptions in economic activity caused by the second wave of the Covid pandemic. In April, ADB had projected a growth rate of 11% in 2021-22 for India.

In its update of the Asian Development Outlook (ADO), the multilateral lending agency has also trimmed the growth forecast for Asia as a region from 7.3% to 7.1% for 2021, though it retained the growth projections for China at 8.1%.

“The growth forecast for India in fiscal year 2021 (ending March 2022) is revised down, as May’s spike in Covid dented the recovery. The outbreak, however, dissipated faster than anticipated, resulting in several states easing lockdown measures and returning to more normal travel patterns,” said the ADO Update (ADOU) 2021.