The Wire Staff 
New Delhi: New investment plans in the country have slumped to a 20-year low in the April to June quarter, with only Rs. 44,300 crore of fresh outlays being announced by the corporates.
When compared with the same quarter over the last two general elections in India, this figure falls way short of the new investment plans in the first quarter of 2014-15 and 2019-20, reported The Hindu.
While new investment plans amounted to Rs. 2.9 lakh crore in the Q1 of 2014-15, the figure for the same period of time in 2019-20 was Rs. 2.1 lakh crore.
The new investment plans were also much higher during last year, when new outlays in the Q1 for 2023-24 stood at Rs. 7.9 lakh crore. Total investments worth Rs. 27.1 lakh crore had been seen in 2023, making it the second highest in a decade.
While the April-June quarter generally has lower investment announcements, it has been extremely low this year, the Bank of Baroda’s economic research department said in a note based on data from the Centre for Monitoring Indian Economy (CMIE).
It added that this had not been the trend in the past when elections were held. Another reason for the slowdown could be that the last two years have seen high investment announcements that are yet to run their course, reported The Hindu.
Corporate bond issues decreased sharply from Rs. 2.86 lakh crore in Q1 of 2023-24 to Rs. 1.73 lakh crore in Q1 this year. Between April 1 and June 14, incremental bank credit was Rs. 2.78 lakh crore, which was much lesser against Rs. 3.78 lakh crore last year, with growth slipping to 1.7% from 2.5% in 2023-24.