0(IDEX Online) - India's economy could take 12 year to recover from COVID-19 losses, says the Reserve Bank of India (RBI).The country sustained losses of $24.8bn during 2020-21, as a direct result of the pandemic, it said. The figure for 2021-22 is estimated at $22.22bn and for 2022-23 it is $21.3bn.India's gold and diamond trade contributed 7.5 per cent of the country's GDP last year and 14 per cent of its total merchandise sales. It employed an estimated 5m people in 2020."Taking the actual growth rate of (-) 6.6 per cent for 2020-21, 8.9 per cent for 2021-22 and assuming growth rate of 7.2 per cent for 2022-23, and 7.5 per cent beyond that, India is expected to overcome COVID-19 losses in 2034-35," said the RBI report, entitled Currency and Finance for the Year 2021-22.