“Recession”, “Recession”, “Recession” – In India?

Everywhere I go these days, the topic of discussion is the “recession”.
I open the newspaper and there are articles about recession. I watch the TV news and see things about recession.

Let me get this straight – we in India are NOT in recession! The generally accepted designation of the word “recession” is 2 or more succesive quarters of negative GDP growth. We are far from that – even the most pessimistic estimates put the Indian growth this year at at least 4.5-5%.

Yes, half the developed world is in a recession. However, a recession would be catastrophic for a developing economy like ours – we do not even want to hear that word uttered! It’s true that a number of industries in India are heavily dependent on the export market to developed countries like the US and they would be hit, but it’s not the end of the road! We have a vibrant domestic market to help us wade through these tough economic conditions.

We are definitely experiencing an economic “slow down” from the hey days of 9-10% growth over the last year or so, but certainly we are not and do not want to be, in recession.

So, let’s cheer up and take this “slow down” on our chin and work through it and get back to a 10% plus growth rate and discard the word “recession” forever!

Here are some facts:
THE three decades since 1980-81 have been easily the best in India’s economic performance in the last century.
After averaging about 3.6 per cent a year in GDP (gross domestic product) growth rate during the 30 years between 1950-51 and 1980-81 and less than 1 per cent a year in the half century before that, GDP growth accelerated to 5.6 per cent in the 1980s (5.3 if 1991-92 is included) and averaged even higher at 6 per cent in the decade up to 2000-01.
(Source: http://www.hinduonnet.com/fline/fl1902/19020610.htm)
I believe the average since 2001 would be closer to 7- 7.5 % or more.