India to grow at 7.4% in FY19: IMF

The Dollar Business Bureau

International organisation International Monetary Fund (IMF) on Monday projected India’s gross domestic product (GDP) growth at 7.4% in the financial year 2018-19, making India being the ‘fastest-growing’ economy among the emerging economies.

“India is forecast to grow at 7.4% in 2018-19 against 6.7% this year, gaining pace to 7.8% in 2019-20,” the IMF said in its report World Economic Outlook: Brighter Prospects, Optimistic Markets, Challenges Ahead. 

China’s economy growth rate at 6.8% in 2017 was higher than India’s 6.7% but the former’s growth will slip to 6.6% next year. In 2016, India’s economy grew at 7.1% but slowed in 2017 due to demonetisation and rollout of GST.

The IMF kept the aggregate growth projections unchanged for emerging markets and developing economies for 2018 and 2019, with clear differences in outlook all over the regions.

“Developing and emerging economies in Asia will grow at about 6.5%, almost at the similar pace as in 2017,” said IMF, and added that the Asian region remains to account for more than 50% of world growth.

“Growth is expected to moderate gradually in China (though with a slight upward revision to the forecast for 2018 and 2019 relative to the fall forecasts, reflecting stronger external demand), pick up in India, and remain broadly stable in the ASEAN-5 region,” it added.

The GDP growth of the US is estimated at 2.7% in 2018 and 2.5% in 2019, higher by 0.4 percentage point and 0.6 percentage point, respectively, compared to previous estimates. 

The world’s growth is projected to be 3.9% this year, higher than 3.7% earlier estimates in October.

“Some 120 economies, accounting for three quarters of world GDP, have seen a pickup in growth in year-on-year terms in 2017, the broadest synchronised global growth upsurge since 2010,” the IMF said.