Free exchange
自由交流
How to put boosters under India’s economy
如何给印度经济加助推器
With the right policies, growth could be astonishing
政策若得当，增长可能是惊人的
- astonish 指“使十分惊讶；使大为惊奇；使吃惊”，语气较强，指出乎预料，意外发生，但又无法解释而感到惊奇（参见：区别辨析surprise、amaze、astonish、astound、startle与stun）
LAND IN ANY Indian city, such as Bangalore or Hyderabad, and you will be struck by its heady optimism. India’s economy may be in the early stage of a historic boom. Recently released figures show that economic growth roared to an annualised pace of 7.6% in the third quarter of 2023. In the past few weeks four international forecasters have raised their growth projections for the year, from an average of 5.9% to one of 6.5%. The National Stock Exchange of India is now neck-and-neck with Hong Kong’s stock exchange for the title of the world’s seventh-largest bourse.
踏上印度任何一座城市，比如班加罗尔或海德拉巴，都会感受到那里洋溢的乐观情绪。印度经济可能正处于一段历史性繁荣的开端。近期公布的数据显示，在2023年第三季度，印度经济年化增长率飙升至7.6%。过去几周，四家国际预测机构上调了对2023年印度经济增长的预测，从平均5.9%调至6.5%。印度国家证券交易所（National Stock Exchange of India）现在与香港证券交易所旗鼓相当，竞逐世界第七大证券交易所的头衔。
- heady 强烈作用于感官的；使兴奋的；使有信心的
- boom （贸易和经济活动的）激增，繁荣
- neck-and-neck 并驾齐驱、势均力敌
- bourse （尤指巴黎的）证券交易所
Pause for breath, though, and India’s performance looks a little less impressive. GDP growth has been slightly slower under Narendra Modi, India’s prime minister, who was elected in 2014, than in the decade before. Labour-force participation is a paltry 40-50%, and only 10-24% for women. Subsidies are distorting the economy. A semiconductor plant in Gujarat will create 5,000 jobs directly and 15,000 indirectly. But a state handout covered 70% of its $2.7bn cost. Assuming rather generously that the factory would not have been built without government support, each job cost $100,000—nearly 40 times India’s average income per person.
但停下来缓口气，就会觉得印度的表现看起来没那么惊人了。在2014年当选印度总理的莫迪治下，印度的GDP增速略低于之前十年。劳动力参与率仅在40%至50%之间，女性更是只有10%至24%。政府补贴正在扭曲经济。古吉拉特邦的一家半导体工厂将直接创造5000个工作岗位，间接创造1.5万个。但政府补贴覆盖了其27亿美元成本的70%。做个豪气的假设，如果该工厂的建设没有政府支持，每个岗位的成本就会高达10万美元，几乎是印度人均收入的40倍。
- pause for breath 停下来喘一口气
- distort 字面义指“扭曲、扭歪、使变形”，常意味着偏离自然、规则、原始或真实的形状、姿势或方向（参见：小词详解 | distort）
