The Indian economy may take more than a decade to overcome the losses emanating from the COVID-19 pandemic, said a report published by the Reserve Bank of India. In an analysis of the impact of Covid-19 on the economy, the report has estimated the output losses during the pandemic period at around Rs 52 lakh crore.

The perturbations from repeated waves of COVID-19 have come in the way of sustained recovery and the quarterly trends in GDP essentially followed the ebbs and flows of the pandemic, said the chapter 'Scars of the Pandemic' in the Report on Currency and Finance (RCF) for the year 2021-22. Following a sharp contraction in the first quarter of 2020-21, the economic momentum progressively picked up till it was hit by the second wave in April-June period of 2021-22. Similarly, the impact of the third wave, concentrated in the month of January 2022, partially dented the recovery process. With the ongoing Russia-Ukraine conflict, the downward risks to global and domestic growth are getting accentuated through surge in commodity prices and global supply chain disruptions, it noted.