As per 2017 figures, the income of an average Indian was in the vicinity of $1,795, which placed the country well below the halfway mark, data from Bloomberg shows.During the same period, the comparable figure for China stood at $8,690, which put it well above the halfway mark in the upper middle income range — defined as GNI per capita between $3,896 and $12,055.Roy said that the 10 crore Indian consumers who have so far been powering India's growth story are now beginning to plateau out. Even the Ministry of Finance, in its Monthly Economic Report of March 2019, had shed ample light on the current scenario. "India's economy appears to have slowed down slightly in 2018-19. The proximate factors responsible for this slowdown include declining growth of private consumption, tepid increase in fixed investment, and muted exports," it had warned.And what does Roy think of the claim about India being the world's fastest-growing economy? India certainly is currently the world's fastest-growing, but this is not the fastest growth in India's history, he says, adding an interesting aspect to the debate — he thinks India is fastest only because China is not currently the fastest.A growth rate of 6.1-6.6 per cent is not bad, but consumption slowdown is going to put that under threat, Roy warned: "A time will come when that will stop."

Source: Economic Times May 09, 2019 07:39 UTC