Director of the Asia & Pacific Wing of the IMF, Krishna Srinivasan has just announced that India has shown a notable economic growth, showing positive trend.
Speaking at the IMF’s press briefing on the regional economic outlook for Asia and Pacific on Thursday Mr. Srinivasan announced that in the second half of the 2023, surprising growth was shown in emerging Asian economies. Especially India, which has shown sizable positive growth.
“Growth surprised on the upside in the second half of 2023 as robust domestic demand fueled activity, especially in emerging Asian economies. Malaysia, the Philippines, Vietnam, and most notably India, which recorded sizable positive growth surprises.” Krishna Srinivasan stated.
Figures Cited by the Director
Later in an exclusive interview to ANI, Mr. Srinivasan said that the economic performance of India was the one that stood out amidst global uncertainties. He also said that India’s growth is on a sustainable path which is primarily backed by consumption and public investments.
He further commented that a growth rate of 6.8% is impressive.
“Growth at 6.8% in 2024-25 is an impressive number. And this is largely led by private consumption and public investment” he confirmed.
Need a lot of Reforms!
While acknowledging India’s growth potential, He also emphasized on the need of undertaking a lot of reforms. Especially in areas like education, healthcare, changes in labour laws, and business environment. If India wants to maximize on its young demography.
“I would highlight now, India is a young growing population. We are likely to add about 15 million people to the labour force every year. If you want to benefit from this demographic change, you will need lots of reforms. I think in particular, I would emphasize the need for significant investment in education, healthcare, so that this growing labour force can contribute productively to the economy” Srinivasan said.
India Outpacing China
Speaking on the India outpacing China as the fastest growing economy, Director Krishna Srinivasan said , “Just to put this into perspective, China is more than four times bigger than India and, in that sense, if India is growing faster today than China then it should not be surprised. With that said, this is something the medium-term good prospects for India are pretty good at 6.5%, it can be better than that, but it all impinges on reforms India pursues. I have listed a bunch of reforms for you (India). If you put hearts and minds together and embark on these reforms in a very conscientious way, then you could get 6.5% or more over the next several years.”
Concerns of Overstated GDP Growth
While addressing the concerns of overstated GDP growth, he expressed his trust in India’s national account statistics and acknowledged the efforts of the government to enhance quality of data transparency.