It noted that income and wealth inequalities in the country have widened, and “social unrest has increased”. 'Meanwhile, a severe and broadly unanticipated second wave of the pandemic, compounded by bottlenecks in the vaccine roll out, hit the country in the second quarter, on top of rising food and general price inflation, forcing widespread lockdowns and drastic consumption and investment adjustments,” it said. “India, which experienced a contraction of 7.0 per cent in 2020, showed a strong quarterly growth of 1.9 per cent growth in the first quarter 2021, on the back of the momentum of the second half of 2020 and supported by government spending in goods and services,' the report said. However, even with a slower growth rate of 6.7 per cent, India will still be the fastest-growing major economy in the world next year. The report projects that India will clock an economic growth of 6.7 per cent in 2022, slower than the country's expected 2021 growth rate. “The recovery in India is constrained by the ongoing human and economic cost of Covid-19, and the negative impact of food price inflation on private consumption,” the UNCTAD report said. The report said that India “suffered a contraction” of 7 per cent in 2020 and is expected to grow 7.2 per cent in 2021. After a 3.5 per cent fall in 2020, the United Nations Conference on Trade and Development (UNCTAD) expects world output to grow 5.3 per cent this year, partially recovering the ground lost in 2020.

The UNCTAD Trade and Development Report 2021, released here on Wednesday, sounded a cautiously optimistic note to say that the global economy is set for a strong recovery in 2021, albeit with a good deal of uncertainty clouding the details at the regional and country levels over the second half of the year. UNITED NATIONS: India is expected to grow at 7.2 per cent in 2021 but economic growth could decelerate next year, according to a United Nations report which said the recovery in the country is constrained by the ongoing human and economic cost of the Covid-19 pandemic and the negative impact of food price inflation on private consumption.

Decelerate crossword