Reforms will help GDP bounce back: CII chief Uday Kotak

New Delhi: Continued focus on reform measures ushered in by the government even as the country faces one of its toughest crises during the pandemic, will trigger a faster recovery of the economy with the industry reposing confidence of a bounce back sooner than expected, Confederation of Indian Industry (CII) president Uday Kotak said on Wednesday.

Talking about the state of the economy post the unlock phase, Kotak said there was now a big departure from the depressed mood that had gripped the industry during the early stages of lockdown.

"The industry now sees their sectors seeing a better pick up and capacity utilisation than what they had projected in March 2020. While in the first few weeks post the lockdown, the pickup was attributed to pent up demand, the sustenance of demand particularly in some non-essential sectors have lifted hopes of a faster recovery," he said.

The CII president said that the determination by the government to meet the challenges by pushing through some long pending reforms like the labour reforms and those for the farm sector apart from the call for an Atma Nirbhar Bharat have helped improve the confidence of the industry.

With the further easing of restrictions and successive unlocking of the economy initiated from June, most of the high frequency data points have shown a continued normalisation in activity levels, as compared to the multi-year lows seen in April.

"The robust performance of merchandise exports can be largely ascribed to the industrial units being able to function with greater capacity in September, as restrictions on mobility were eased and local lockdowns were fewer. Slowly improving global trade is also helping on the margin," said Kotak.

The turning around of outbound shipments after a gap of six months with merchandise exports expanding by 5.27 per cent in September is amongst the many indicators which have recorded an impressive recovery.