By

Prof. Dipika
Lecturer in P.G. Dept. of Commerce
K.L.S.D. College
Ludhiana

Global Recession and Impact on Various Sectors of Indian Economy

ABSTRACT
The word 'Recession' denotes a temporary period of economic decline during which trade and Individual activities are reduced. Till date, the world has witnessed a number of economic recessions that brought the trade market to a standstill and left the economists and analysts with valuable lessons to be learnt for future. Globalization and liberalization have contributed a lot in making the entire world a close knit economic unit. In an interconnected global economy recession and economic turbulence in one part of the world has the potential to disrupt the economies of other countries in a major way. The economic slowdown in US economy in 2008 caused by the burst of housing bubble engulfed the entire world in its grip. This research paper aims to give a detailed account of US Recession-2008 and its impact on Indian Economy. The financial crisis has not only affected United States of America, but also European Union, U.K and Asia. The Indian Economy too has felt the impact of the crisis to some extent. Though it is difficult to quantify the impact of the crisis on India, it is felt that certain sectors of the economy would be affected by the spill over effects of the financial crisis.
INTRODUCTION
The current global financial crisis is rooted in the subprime crisis which surfaced over a year ago in the United States of America. During the boom years, mortgage brokers attracted by the big commissions, encouraged buyers with poor credit to accept housing mortgages with little or no down payment and without credit checks. A combination of low interest rates and large inflow of foreign funds during the booming years helped the banks to create easy credit conditions for many years. Banks lent money on the assumption that housing prices would continue to rise. Also the real estate bubble encouraged the demand for houses as financial assets. Banks and financial institutions later repackaged these debts with other high-risk debts and sold them to world- wide investors creating financial instruments called CDOs or Collateralized Debt Obligations (Sadhu2008). In this way risk was passed on multifold through derivatives trade.
RECESSION
Recession can be defined as a period of general economic decline; typically defined as a decline in GDP for two or more consecutive quarters. A recession is typically accompanied by a drop in the stock market, an increase in unemployment, and a decline in the housing market. A recession is generally considered less severe than a depression, and if a recession continues long enough it is often then classified as a depression. Recessions are generally believed to be caused by a widespread drop in spending. Governments usually respond to recessions by adopting expansionary macroeconomic policies, such as increasing money supply, increasing government spending and decreasing taxation.
WHAT CAUSES RECESSION?
An economy which grows over a period of time tends to slow down as a part of the normal economic cycle. An economy typically expands for 6-10 years and tends to go into a recession for about six months to 2 years. A recession normally takes place when consumers lose confidence in the growth of the economy and spend less. This leads to a decreased demand for goods and services, which in turn leads to a decrease in production, lay-offs and a sharp rise in unemployment. Investors spend less as they fear stock values will fall and thus stock markets fall on negative sentiment.
HISTORY OF RECESSIONS
Global Recessions
The IMF estimates that global recessions seem to occur over a cycle lasting between 8 and 10 years. During what the IMF terms the past three global recessions of the last three decades, global per capita output growth was zero or negative. Economists at the International Monetary Fund (IMF) state that a global recession would take a slowdown in global growth to three percent or less. By this measure, four periods since 1985 qualify: 1990-1993, 1998, 2001-2002 and 2008-2009.
The Indian economy exhibited significant resilience in 2008-09 in the face of an intense global financial crisis and the subsequent severe global recession. In a globalised world, however, the natural process of transmission of contagion operating through the trade, capital flows and confidence channels affected the domestic economic and financial conditions. Real GDP growth, which had averaged at 8.8 per cent during 2003-08, decelerated to 6.7 per cent in 2008-09.

US RECESSION-2008
The financial crisis of 2008–present is a crisis triggered by an insolvent United States banking system. It has resulted in the collapse of large financial institutions, the bailout of banks by national governments and downturns in stock markets around the world. In many areas, the housing market has also suffered, resulting in numerous evictions, foreclosures and prolonged vacancies. It is considered by many economists to be the worst financial crisis since the Great Depression of the 1930s. It contributed to the failure of key businesses, declines in consumer Wealth estimated in the trillions of U.S. dollars, substantial financial commitments incurred by governments, and a significant decline in economic activity. The collapse of a global housing bubble, which peaked in the U.S. in 2006, caused the values of securities tied to real estate pricing to plummet thereafter, damaging financial institutions globally. Questions regarding bank solvency, declines in credit availability, and damaged investor confidence had an impact on global stock markets, where securities suffered large losses during late 2008 and early 2009. Economies worldwide slowed during this period as credit tightened and international trade declined.
IMPACT ON INDIA
Since US is one of the major super powers, a recession–mild or deeper will have eventual global Consequences? The crisis rapidly developed and spread into a global economic shock, resulting in a number of European bank failures, declines in various stock indices, and large reductions in the market value of equities and commodities A slowdown in the US economy was definitely a bad news for India because Indian companies have major outsourcing deals from the US. India's exports to the US have also grown substantially over the years. But inspite of all this India has successfully weathered the great financial crisis of September 2008. Indian gross domestic product (GDP) has grown around 6% in every quarter of the most difficult 12 months in recent history.
Why did India suffer so little in the Great Recession that laid low the biggest economies of the West?
There were many factors that saved the Indian economy from dire consequences of the global recession. Indian banks and financial institutions had almost entirely avoided buying the mortgage-backed securities and credit default swaps that turned toxic and felled western Financial institutions. India's merchandise exports were indeed hit by the Great Recession but Service exports did not fall - computer software and BPO exports held up well. Foreign direct investment remained high in 2008-09 despite the global financial crisis. Financiers reversed Flows into India, but long-term investors in plant and factories completed their ongoing projects. Monetary policy was accommodating in 2008. The RBI lowered interest rates and expanded Credit. The government cut excise duties to stoke demand. All these factors cushioned the shock to the economy.

Table 1: The Institute of International Finance (IIF) Projections for Growth (2008- 10).
World Economy 2% growth in 2008 and predicted to shrink to 0.4% in 2009
USA (World's Largest Economy) 1.3% growth in 2009
Japan (World's Second Largest Economy) 0% growth predicted in 2010
China 6.5% growth in 2009
India 5% growth in 2009