Keki Mistry expects GDP growth to touch 7% in H2; says 3 sectors will do well now

Keki Mistry, Former VC & CEO, HDFC & Independent Director in Several Companies, says he would be surprised if India’s growth is not 7% or very close to 7% by the second half of the year. If monsoons are good, food prices continue to remain low, and there is low geopolitical uncertainty, then we can cross 7% in the latter part of the year.
Mistry also says that the risk to India from tariff threat is far lesser than the risk to countries like China, Canada or any of these European countries. India is hugely dependent on the domestic economy though exports make for 22-23% of GDP and the US accounts for 16-17% of total exports. So, the proportion of the impact it will have on India will be lesser than in most other countries. FMCG, retail, also the IT sector will do well because of rupee depreciation.

Let us first understand the impact of inflation in the overall scheme of things and when do you see the Reserve Bank of India liquidity impact being visible in real economic growth?
Keki Mistry: We have seen that inflation this month has come down very significantly. If we see the February number, which was released yesterday, it clearly shows that there is a substantive reduction in inflation. Now, given the reduction in inflation, my personal view is that RBI may enhance or increase the rate cuts that they were earlier looking at. My sense was we would have looked at probably one rate cut in the next quarter, which would have been a 25 basis points cut. I still think it will be a 25 bps cut, but the overall sentiment