Japan's business ties with India look set to expand further as the pace of investments by Japanese firms continues to accelerate, despite a recent slowdown of the Indian economy and the country's twin deficits, experts and people involved in bilateral relations said at recent events in Tokyo.
Growth in India's gross domestic product in the January-March period was 5.3 percent — much slower than the double-digit growth that the country achieved as recently as in 2010. Industrial output in March was down 3.5 percent from a year ago. Confronted with fiscal and current account deficits, the country faces a possible sovereign debt downgrade by credit rating agencies.
Still, the situation does not appear to have deterred the growing trend of Japanese investments in India, which hit record figures in 2011 in both the number of cases and the value, said Go Yamada, principal economist with the Japan Center for Economic Research.