India's Economic Boom Likely to Continue in 2008 (2/2)

Stock markets reflected the faith in the future of the economy. Share prices gained more than 40 percent in 2007. Mumbai's Sensex index closed the year at over 20,000 points.

The services and manufacturing sector led the growth. Confident Indian companies also began to move beyond the domestic market.

T.K. Bhaumik, an economist at India's biggest conglomerate, Reliance Industries, says Indian companies invested nearly $50 billion in acquiring companies overseas.

"All the big corporates are trying to expand their global operations, be a global player.... They think they are competent enough to operate globally. There is a lot of confidence, but the optimism is tinged with caution. There are fears that the rupee's 15 percent appreciation against the dollar in 2007 could hurt the information technology sector and reduce exports.

And there is little sign the economic boom is trickling down to impoverished villages in many parts of the country. It is estimated that more than one-third of the country's one billion people still live on less than $2 a day. There are concerns that the rising disparity between booming cities and villages could trigger social discontent.

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股市反映了公众对未来经济的信心。印度股价在2007年增长了40%之多，孟买Sensex 指数在年底以2万多点收盘。

服务业和制造业是经济增长的中坚力量。信心十足的印度公司也已开始由国内市场转战海外。

印度最大的集团--诚信集团的经济学家德克-巴哈米克说，印度公司为收购海外公司，投资了接近500亿美元。

"所有的大公司都在努力拓展全球化经营，成为全球化参与者。他们认为自己已有足够的能力进行全球经营。他们非常有信心，乐观却不失谨慎。很多人担心，2007年卢比兑美元汇率以15%增长，可能会对信息技术产业有所冲击并减少印度的出口。"

而且，在该国的很多地区，几乎没有迹象表明经济繁荣带动了乡村发展。据估计，印度十亿人口中有多于三分之一的人仍生活在每日2美元的贫困线以下。很多人担心城市经济的繁荣使得城乡差距日益扩大，会引发社会不满。