Commodity prices boosting exports’ value: Moody’s arm

‘Modest fiscal support to SMEs, low-income groups may cause deep scarring’

High commodity prices have boosted the value of India’s exports, which have hit a record $95 billion in the first quarter of 2021 and outbound trade is likely to lead the country towards a recovery after the pandemic’s ‘one-two punch’ hit the economy, Moody’s Analytics said in a report on Monday. Stating that India is struggling to accelerate COVID-19 vaccination, the firm reckoned that ‘herd resilience’ — when 65% of the population is fully immunised — is now expected in the fourth quarter of 2022. Only Indonesia, Philippines and Thailand are expected to reach those levels of vaccination later, among India’s peers in the region. In an economic outlook report on the Asia Pacific Region titled ‘The Delta Roadblock’, the financial intelligence firm said the delta variant of COVID-19 is among the key factors adversely affecting economies, although the setback from the current set of movement restrictions will not be as severe as in the second quarter of 2020.