The economic mosaic: Chugging along at the 'new-old normal' growth rate

A GDP growth rate of 6-plus per cent is great, given the global context, but there's no near-term prospect of acceleration, notes T N Ninan

The Reserve Bank of India’s (RBI’s) periodic surveys of consumer and business opinion are often more revealing than the broad macroeconomic numbers of growth, inflation, and the like. In the latest set of survey findings, business and financial opinion reflects broadly the optimism of an expanding economy that is buttressed by good stability indicators and strong balance sheets. That’s true also of the economic forecasters who have been surveyed. This collective optimism as the economy heads into the busy festival season finds reflection in the latest set of macro numbers, like falling inflation, rising industrial production, lower unemployment, buoyant tax