Brexit will undoubtedly impact India, but it’s ready, says India’s Economic Affairs Secretary

It’s just a few hours left for the final voting on 'Brexit' (Britain's exit) from the European Union, and the Indian government has said that it is prepared for all results, given that we have strong economic fundamentals and enough foreign exchange reserves.

"We are living in times where all countries which are globalised have to bear the impact," India’s Finance Secretary Ashok Lavasa said.

Most of the polls conducted in the UK showed a tough race, however, the 'remain' camp has come out to be marginally ahead of the 'exit' group, while a sizeable proportion also remained undecided.

The results of the final votings will most likely be available by late Thursday night.

"We will take whatever measures are required. We need not be duly alarmed. If it happens we must learn to deal with it," Lavasa told ET.

Shaktikanta Das, the Economic Affairs Secretary, stated that there are indications that Brexit won't happen; however, if that happens, India is well prepared for the results. He went ahead to give three reasons behind India’s ability to bear the expected global financial turmoil which is bound to happen if Brexit happened. These are: sufficient foreign exchange reserve of $360 billion, India continuing to be an attractive FDI destination globally and minimal likely impact on India's trade.

"If there is any currency volatility, we should be able to deal with that situation," Das added.

India's current account deficit narrowed to 1.1% of GDP in 2015-16 from 1.3% from a year ago.

Talking of India’s relations with the UK, we exported $8.8 billion worth of goods to the UK last fiscal and imported goods worth $5.2 billion. British companies have invested big in India; however, the recent years have seen these inflows slowing down, since in 2015-16, UK invested less than $1 billion in India.

Image source