Govt's Push To Infrastructure Key To Economic Growth In India: Survey


BANGALORE: Indian investors expect government push on infrastructure to act as the key to economic growth, which will provide impetus to private investment, a survey conducted by India Ratings and Research (Ind-Ra) revealed.

Ind-Ra conducted its quarterly Fixed-Income Investor Survey in August 2015 covering key fund managers, credit risk heads of banks, senior credit analysts, investment portfolio managers and select issuers, the agency said in a statement.

The survey suggests that “investors in India expect the government’s push on infrastructure to be key to growth and also provide impetus to private investment”, it added.

Corporate profitability and capital expenditure are expected to pick up only in 2016-17, it revealed.

A majority of the respondents (64 per cent) are of the view that the Reserve Bank (RBI) should cut the policy rate to stimulate investment. Some 52 per cent felt that the rupee’s movement should be restricted between 64-67 a dollar.

As much as 91 per cent of respondents were convinced that corporate performance will not improve this fiscal, but were optimistic of a recovery in profitability and capex in 2016-17. Most of the respondents expect an improvement in credit conditions over the next 12 months.

“A majority of the respondents (63 per cent) believed that India’s fundamentals are strong enough to handle the impact of a US Fed tightening. However, a stimulus plan in Europe and the Fed tightening could push back RBI’s rate cut decision by three to six months,” it added.

Ind-Ra said the survey garnered 93 responses between July 21 and August 7, 2015.

The survey focussed on investment behaviour, the pattern, government’s perception and initiatives.

It also looked at risk profile of investors and tried to analyse the impact of regulatory policies on investment in the securities market.

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Source: PTI