AP.yahoo.com – The terror attacks that rocked India’s financial capital may depress stocks, dampen tourism and slow new investment, but are unlikely to inflict long-term damage on the nation’s economy, analysts and business people said Thursday.
“This is a challenge for the government to maintain law and order in the country,” said Takahira Ogawa, director of sovereign ratings at Standard & Poor’s in Singapore. “At this stage, I don’t think there will be any major impact on the macroeconomic or fiscal position of the government.”
The attacks, which began Wednesday night when gunmen invaded two posh hotels, a restaurant and several other sites in downtown Mumbai, came as India was struggling to contain fallout from the global financial crisis.
The attacks are “a challenge to the economic resurgence in India,” said Habil Khorakiwala, chairman of Wockhardt, an Indian pharmaceutical company.
“The targets identified clearly demonstrate that the intention is to create panic and shatter the confidence in the minds of investors in India and global investors coming to India,” he said in a statement. “This war has to be fought together by all across, to protect the safety of Indian people, for economic resurgence and growth of the Indian nation.”
