Infrastructure stunts growth in India

INDUSTRY AND services have been driving growth in India, according to information made available by credit insurer Coface South Africa. “But the enormous infrastructure and education needs nonetheless continue to be veritable economic bottlenecks preventing growth from reaching optimal levels. The public sector debt service burden, meanwhile, still representing over onethird of fiscal revenues, has impeded the necessary public investment.” The upcoming elections, which must take place by May 2009, could affect the pace of the reform programme, sponsored currently by a very disparate coalition of parties. The reform process seems nonetheless irreversible. “In these conditions, the Coface payment incident index has remained below the world average. It nonetheless continues to be very difficult to obtain financial information for mid-size companies or consolidated financial statements for groups,” a Coface spokesman revealed.