Weak Monsoon to hit India's Growth

(Bloomberg) -- A below-average monsoon may shave as much as one percentage point off India’s economic growth this year, an adviser to Prime Minister Manmohan Singh said. “The monsoon will have an effect, but not as devastating as it would have been in the past,” said Raghuram Rajan, who is also a professor of finance at the University of Chicago. “Now hopefully it takes a fraction of a percentage point or a percentage point off growth, which still looks reasonably healthy.”

The weather office today lowered its forecast for monsoon rainfall for a second time this season, saying the rain in the June-September season will be 87 percent of the average between 1941 and 1950, compared with a 93 percent forecast on June 24, said Ajit Tyagi, director general at the India Meteorological Department.

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