'India's revenue growth to improve to 5-year high in FY18'

Releasing its annual India Outlook Series report called 'Colours of Growth' on the prospects of the economy for the year starting April 1, 2017, Crisil said India Inc's revenue growth, driven by consumption, will hit a 5-year high of 8-9 per cent in fiscal 2018. Operating profit margins are likely to remain range-bound as higher commodity prices will take a toll on end-user sectors.

In fiscal 2018, absent fiscal and monetary stimuli and unsupportive global environment, Crisil foresees only a mild recovery in the Indian economy, with GDP edging up 30 basis points to 7.4 per cent over fiscal 2017, driven by pent-up consumption demand after demonetisation.

"The ongoing resets would lead to consolidation in three ways: in consumption, after the demonetisation shock; in infrastructure, through deployment of innovative financing; and, lastly, in market shares because capacities will change hands for various reasons such as intense competition, GST, policy action, formalisation of the economy and stressed assets evolutions," said Ashu Suyash, managing director and CEO, Crisil.

Ample headroom in capacity utilisation, stretched balance sheets and just a moderate pick-up in demand will mean revival in the private sector investment cycle would get deferred to fiscal 2019.

While the decline in interest rates over the past two years in salutary, it will not be enough to revive the investment cycle till other factors, such as demand and deleveraging, also turn conducive. That means once again, the government and the public sector will have to do the heavy lifting next fiscal, especially on infrastructure side, to ensure growth stays the course, said the company in a press release.

"What clearly emerges as a confluence of all this is only a mild reovery as the investmnt cycle remains subdued with low capacity utilisation and stretched balance sheets. The ongoing resets, declining interest rates and new financing tools such as Expected Loss ratings for operational infrastructure projects, will provide a more robust and sustainable foundation for long-term growth," added Suyash.

Meantime, the credit quality of India Inc is showing sings of gradual recovery driven by firm commodity prices, stable macros, impact of sustained structural reforms, improving capital structure and lower interest costs.

Crisil believes the banking sector will see lower slippages to NPAs. Signs of turnaround are increasingly visible in some commodity-linked sectors (especially metals) and in the mid-sized EPC segment. Nevertheless, the underlying fragility will continue and keep NPAs at elevated levels given some sectors are continuing to struggle. (KD)

Fibre2Fashion News Desk – India