The Organisation of Economic Co-operation and Development Countries (OECD) has slashed its growth forecast for India to 6.9 per cent for the current fiscal against 8.1 per cent earlier. The OECD follows the World Bank, which earlier this week cut India’s growth forecast for 2022-23 to 7.5 per cent from 8 per cent earlier.

The RBI on Wednesday retained its growth forecast at 7.2 per cent. It said Russia’s war in Ukraine and the energy and food crises will severely drag down global economic growth and push up inflation this year.

China's “zero-COVID” policies that have scrambled manufacturing supply chains also are weighing on a world economy that was just starting to rebound from the Covid-19 pandemic, the Paris-based OECD said, becoming the latest institution to slash its growth forecast and underscoring the dimming economic outlook.

The OECD, a club of largely wealthy nations, expects the global economy to expand 3 per cent in 2022, down from the 4.5 per cent that it predicted in December. Inflation is forecast at nearly 9 per cent for the OECD’s 38 member countries, which include the US, UK and many European nations, nearly double the previous estimate.

The World Bank, the United Nations, and the IMF have made similar downgrades to their economic forecasts recently.