Goan businessmen hope
economy will recover fully
The Goan Network
Business groups in Goa are expecting 2016 to be better than 2015, but they remain cautious given that general economy is yet to recover fully. Parag Joshi, managing partner, Jutex and Laminex, said, “We make packaging for cement, fertilisers and food-grains. We don’t have a problem getting orders as recovery is happening, but often payments take time to come in. We expect the Reserve Bank of India (RBI) to cut interest rates, which will improve availability of finance thereby sorting out such issues”
It is evident from Joshi’s comments that top line demand has seen improvement, which shows that economic recovery has set in, but the full-impact of it is yet to be realized. Joshi is also chairman of Confederation of Indian Industry (CII), Goa State Council. He continued, “Every time, CII has a western region meeting, members share their perception of the economy and everyone is saying that there is a recovery as far as manufacturing sector is concerned”
While manufacturing sector has already started showing signs of turnaround, real-estate sector is yet to see a major recovery. K KulaSekhar, designated partner, Milroc, said, “I think demand will pick up by the end of 2016. But, as of now, we remain extremely cautious of the sector as we were in 2015. In 2016, we will finish our project, Milroc Kadamba, at Old Goa. We are planning one more project this year in Pilar, Goa Velha”
Real estate sector will also get some traction if RBI cuts rate. Although RBI has been cutting key interest rates for sometime now, borrowers haven’t really been positively impacted on their housing loans as banks haven’t cut rates significantly. If interest rate cut happens in 2016, then it will be a big boost for real-estate sector.
As evident from Joshi’s comments, interest rate cut will be crucial also from the perspective of 62 proposals cleared by the investment promotion board (IPB) in Goa till now. Most of these projects are likely to get operational this year and for that liberal borrowing rates are a must.
