New Delhi: IMD’s prediction of a “normal” monsoon will boost the agriculture growth and will soothe the nerves of investors.
Earlier there were reports by private forecasters that monsoon this year may be below normal due to an evolving El Nino phenomenon.
A normal monsoon is crucial for agriculture growth as India still to a large extent depend on rains and monsoon delivers 70 per cent of total rains received by the country in a year.
“IMD prediction of a normal monsoon augurs well for agriculture. After two straight bad monsoons, we had a good monsoon last year but the full benefit of it could not be realised in terms of demand for various goods and services due to demonetisation. If we have a normal monsoon this year too then the pent-up demand plus rural demand will overall translate into better GDP growth in 2017-18,” said Sunil Kumar Sinha, economist, Ind-Ra.
