NEW DELHI: As India extended the nationwide lockdown till 3 May to combat the covid-19 outbreak, Barclays cut its growth forecast for the country to 0% for calendar year 2020 from its earlier projection of 2.5%, holding that the economic fallout will be worse than it had earlier estimated. “While India’s COVID outbreak has not officially reached the community transmission stage, we believe the existing restrictions on movement are causing much more economic damage than anticipated.
Despite being characterised as essential sectors, the negative impact of the shutdown measures on the mining, agriculture, manufacturing and utility sectors appears higher than we had expected," it said in a report.