The COVID-19 pandemic rages on in the country and though new case additions have been on a decline, the slow pace of vaccination and the demand-supply mismatch is a concern.

Several brokerages have downgraded India's gross domestic product (GDP) estimates for FFY22 with the latest being JPMorgan which has lowered the forecast to 9 percent from 11 percent.

Soumya Kanti Ghosh, Group Chief Economic Advisor at State Bank of India discussed the macro picture in detail. He has also written a report on the template for making state vaccine procurement more efficient.

“The whole of May has been very devastating in terms of the spread, in terms of the number of deaths, in terms of the number of cases but the only point of solace is that India possibly had reached the peak in the first week of May and now the cases have been coming down,” he said.

“We had cut our forecast from 11 percent to 10.4 percent, we are holding that as of now but we are waiting for that May 31 number. Once we know that, the extent of this year’s numbers will be taken into account. However, as of now, sub-10 percent growth is a distinct possibility if you look into the FY22 GDP estimates,” he added.

For the full interview, watch the accompanying video

(Edited by : Abhishek Jha)