While the coronavirus panic has sent global markets to jitters, India is well prepared to take on the headwinds, Sanjeev Sanyal, Principal Economic Advisor to the Ministry of Finance, said. India cannot remain entirely insulated from what is going on in the global financial market, but, it is well prepared to deal with it because of its over $400 billion-worth foreign exchange reserves, he told CNBC TV-18. To top it off, there is a decline in oil prices, and inflation is under control. India has a lot of monetary space, unlike its peers in Europe. It is “time for us to remain in control,” he added.
The coronavirus outbreak has caused a supply chain disruption but the government has been proactive in taking stock of the situation. Finance Minister Nirmala Sitharaman held a series of meetings recently to get hold of the supply chain. She also got inputs from traders and now the government has an item and item list of the remaining supplies, he told the news channel. The Reserve Bank of India is monitoring the situation carefully and is prepared to do whatever is required to deal with the crisis, he said. Earlier, trade body CAIT had raised concerns over the drying up supplies from China and how it will affect the manufacturing in the country.
Meanwhile, as India is now shutting its gates to those coming from abroad, the aviation and other industries are expected to take a blow of the visa curbs. The cascading effect of visa curbs will have an impact of over Rs 8,500 crore to aviation, travel and hotels segments, according to the Indian Association of Tour Operators. The total confirmed cases in India stand at 75 now and so far, one person has been reported dead due to coronavirus. The markets also continue to remain volatile and have been swinging to green and red.