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Asia

Corporate gloom grows as India PM holds rupee meeting

By AFP
Published | Updated
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An Indian worker monitors ice cream production at Vadilal Industries Ltd at Pundhara village , around 60 kms from Ahmedabad on May 28, 2013. India's business leaders are increasingly gloomy about the economic outlook, according to a survey published Monday, as top corporate bosses prepare to meet Premier Manmohan Singh to discuss the weak rupee. (AFP/File)

NEW DELHI (AFP) – India's business leaders are increasingly gloomy about the economic outlook, according to a survey published Monday, as top corporate bosses prepare to meet Premier Manmohan Singh to discuss the weak rupee.

Singh, a veteran economist, has scheduled the meeting of the Prime Minister's Council on Trade and Industry in New Delhi against the backdrop of an economy growing at a decade low of five percent and a string of dismal indicators.

The rupee this month slipped to a record low against the dollar amid a ballooning current account deficit -- the broadest measure of trade.

The council includes India's richest man, Mukesh Ambani who heads petrochemical giant Reliance Industries, and Sunil Mittal, chief of India's biggest telecom firm Bharti Airtel.

The survey by the Associated Chambers of Commerce and Industry (ASSOCHAM) found 51 percent of business leaders believe the economic situation has worsened in the past six months, up from 23 percent who held that view in March.

The survey of 200 business leaders cited weak domestic and export demand, poor infrastructure, high cost of credit, soaring raw material prices and a rise in wage costs "as key factors adversely affecting the business performance".

At Monday's meeting, the businessmen are expected to say that high interest rates have blunted the recovery of Asia's third-largest economy.

Analysts expect the central bank to offer little cheer when it meets on Tuesday, with most expecting it to hold interest rates steady.

Finance Minister P. Chidambaram and top government economic planner Montek Singh Ahluwalia are also expected to attend the meeting.

In April, Singh, whose government has come under fire from corporate India for policy drift, urged business leaders to "prove the prophets of doom are wrong" and avoid being "swamped by a mood of negativism".