Corporate hiring to be slow till fiscal-end: Assocham

New Delhi, Nov 19:  Despite Moody’s sovereign rating upgrade, hiring by the private sector is expected to stay muted till the end of the current fiscal as corporate India is busy trimming balance sheets and ratiolising costs, according to industry chamber Assocham. Based on a survey of association members, the Assocham report on Sunday comes in the context of tepid job growth in the economy which has been recently impacted by demonetisation and implementation of the Goods and Services Tax.

“With corporate India placing most energies on ratiolising costs, including wage costs, and trying to deleverage its balance sheet, the hiring outlook in the private sector is expected to stay muted till the beginning of fiscal 2018-19,” an Associated Chambers of Commerce and Industry of India (Assocham) release said here.

“The focus right now is how to deleverage, consolidate, exit from non-core businesses and achieve lean and mean balance sheets. Going forward at least in the next quarter and a half, corporates would be busy improving their margins and reducing their debt costs, even as the top line growth may take a back seat,” it said.

On Friday, US credit rating agency Moody’s upgraded India’s sovereign ratings to Baa2 from its lowest investment grade of Baa3 and changed the outlook for the country’s rating to stable from positive. It said this was based on the Indian government’s “wide-ranging programme of economic and institutiol reforms”. (IANS)