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The International Monetary Fund (IMF) has said the recent jump in COVID-19 cases in India posed downside risks to the Fund's April forecast for 12.5% growth in India's economic output in fiscal years 2021 and 2022. IMF spokesman Gerry Rice said the IMF will revisit that forecast when it issued a fresh World Economic Outlook in July.

He said the developments in India, the world's second most populous nation, would have spillover effects for the region and the global economy, depending on how long the crisis lasted, but it was too soon to give specifics. Rice said ‘We are all watching what is happening in India with concern.’

India, with a population of 1.3 billion people, reported a record 412,262 new COVID-19 cases on Thursday and a record 3,980 deaths, as a second wave of infections swamped its healthcare system. COVID-19 infections in India have surged past 21 million, with a death toll of 230,168.