The International Monetary Fund (IMF) on Tuesday projected an impressive 11.5 % growth rate for India in 2021, making the country the only major economy of the world to register double-digit growth this year amidst the coronavirus pandemic. The International Monetary Fund's growth projections for India in its latest World Economic Outlook Update released on Tuesday reflected a strong rebound in the economy, which is estimated to have contracted by 8% in 2020 due to the pandemic.
In its latest update, the IMF projected an 11.5% growth rate for India in 2021. This makes India the only major economy of the world to register double-digit growth in 2021, it said. China is next with 8.1% growth in 2021 followed by Spain (5.9%) and France (5.5%).
Revising its figures, the IMF said that in 2020, the Indian economy is estimated to have contracted by 8%. China is the only major country which registered a positive growth rate of 2.3% in 2020.
India's economy, the IMF said, is projected to grow by 6.8% in 2022 and that of China by 5.6%.
With the latest projections, India regains the tag of the fastest developing economies of the world.
Early this month, IMF Managing Director Kristalina Georgieva had said that India actually has taken very decisive action, very decisive steps to deal with the pandemic and to deal with the economic consequences of it.
India, she said, went for a very dramatic lockdown for a country of this size of the population with people clustered so closely together. And then India moved to more targeted restrictions and lockdowns.
What we see is that transition, combined with policy support, seems to have worked well. Why? Because if you look at mobility indicators, we are almost where we were before COVID in India, meaning that economic activities have been revitalized quite significantly, the IMF chief said.
Commending the steps being taken by the Indian government on the monetary policy and the fiscal policy side, she said it is actually slightly above the average for emerging markets.
Emerging markets on average have provided 6% of GDP. In India, this is slightly above that. Good for India is that there is still space to do more, she said, adding that she is impressed by the appetite for structural reforms that India is retaining.
By Lalit K Jha