IMF chief hails India’s ‘very significant’ reforms, says it ‘substantially’ fuels global growth
Washington, Oct 16 (IANS) The International Monetary Fund (IMF) Managing Director Kristalina Georgieva said on Thursday that India has pursued “very significant reforms” in its economy and the country “substantially” contributes to global growth.
While addressing a press conference on the sidelines of the annual IMF-World Bank meetings in Washington, Georgieva listed India’s reform efforts in multiple sectors.
“India is one of the fastest-growing economies, and given its size, it contributes to global growth substantially. India is where it is because it has pursued very significant reforms, tax reform, investing in infrastructure, digital infrastructure, but also road connectivity in the country, and that has injected this growth potential,” she added.
The IMF on Tuesday raised India’s growth projection to 6.6 per cent, an upward swing of 0.2 percentage points, in its latest Global Economic Outlook report.
According to the report, India’s strong growth in the first quarter of 2025 is “offsetting” the US tariff increase on its imports to the country.
“In India, growth is projected to be 6.6 per cent in 2025… Compared with the July WEO update, this is an upward revision for 2025, with carryover from a strong first quarter more than offsetting the increase in the US effective tariff rate on imports from India since July,” the report said.
The Indian economy grew at a faster rate of 7.8 per cent in its April-July quarter, beating all expectations.
On Monday, Georgieva called India’s growth journey “impressive,” and lauded the government for policy and tax reforms.
“I’m very big on India because of the boldness with which they do things that others are telling them…not possible. For example, digital identity. Everybody was saying you cannot have everybody with digital ID…they have proven them wrong,” she added.
On Thursday, Georgieva advised the country to “aim for higher degree of trade integration with partners.”
“India has still maintained some barriers to trade. There are tariffs that India imposes, there are some restrictions, and it is good to think about – where do you want to go? Do we want to go in a direction of maintaining and increasing these restrictions, or we want to go the other way, integrate? And if I take the relations with the EU, the signal seems to be, yes, we want to trade with others,” she added.
She also said that New Delhi should continue “doing what has worked for it…pursue reforms.”
–IANS
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