MUMBAI, April 5 (Xinhua) -- Indian companies are expecting that revenue will fall by 10 percent and profit by 5 percent in the current April-June quarter as well as the just concluded January-March quarter on COVID-19 impact along with significant job losses, according to a survey released by an industry body on Sunday.
The COVID-19 outbreak and the subsequent country-wide lockdown has deeply impacted India's economy with a majority of the companies expecting demand to decline and employment to get impacted, according to the online survey of chief executive officers (CEOs) representing 200 companies conducted by Confederation of Indian Industry (CII).
About 47 percent of the companies expect less than 15 percent job-loss while 32 percent companies expect to shed between 15-30 percent jobs, once the lockdown ends, the statement said.
"The government could announce a fiscal stimulus package for the industry and implement it on fast track mode, given that the sudden imposition of the lockdown has significantly impacted industry operations and the uncertainty of a recovery threatens substantial loss of livelihoods going forward," said Chandrajit Banerjee, director general of CII.
Around 80 percent of the CEOs have claimed that their inventory was lying idle while over 40 percent of them expect their stocks to last beyond a month once the lockdown ends indicating the demand to slowdown in post lock-down period.
India, which has 3,030 active cases of COVID-19 and 77 deaths as per official data, is currently under a three-week lock-down that ends on April 14.
Last week, rating agency Fitch in its report said India's economic growth could hit a 30-year low of 2 percent in 2020-21 (Apr-Mar). According to India's Economic Survey released by the government in January, the country was expected to end 2019-20 (Apr-Mar) with growth at around 5 percent.
