Reliance Industries Chairperson Mukesh Ambani on Tuesday said the economic slowdown in India was temporary and the steps taken by the Centre would help in reversing the situation, PTI reported. The industrialist made the remarks at Saudi Arabia’s annual investment forum, which is known as “Davos in the desert”.

“Yes, there has been a slight slowdown [in the Indian economy],” he said at the Future Investment Initiative conference in Riyadh. “But my own view is that it is temporary. All the reform measures that have been taken in the last few months will see the outcome and I am quite sure that in [the] coming quarters this will reverse.”

The Indian economy has seen a consistent decline in growth. The economic growth rate slipped to a six-year low of 5% in the April-June quarter – the fourth straight quarter of slowdown. The country lost the tag of the fastest growing major economy to China in the last quarter of 2018-’19 after the growth rate in its Gross Domestic Product declined to 5.8%.

Earlier this month, the International Monetary Fund lowered India’s projected growth in the current financial year to 6.1% but said it would rebound to 7% in the 2020-’21 financial year. On October 26, during a visit to New Delhi, World Bank Group President David Malpass called for more reforms and innovation to improve India’s growth rate. The world body’s Chief Economist Gita Gopinath said on October 20 that the organisation was “less optimistic” about the country’s economy than it was a few months ago.

Meanwhile, Prime Minister Narendra Modi, who was on a two-day trip to Saudi Arabia, delivered a keynote address at the Future Investment Initiative conference. He said that India has set a target of becoming a $5 trillion economy within the next five years.

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