New Delhi: Domestic consumption provides natural cushion to the Indian economy against global slowdown as bulk of the country’s GDP depends on local demand, World Bank President Ajay Banga said here Wednesday.
Talking to reporters after meeting Union Finance Minister Nirmala Sitharaman, Banga said he discussed issues related to G20 and cooperation between the World Bank and India.
“We talked about everything we did at G20 and how the meeting went. We talked about what the World Bank and India can do further as well as G20 part of it. India is the largest market for the World Bank in terms of our portfolio here. There is a lot of interest here,” he said.
Sitharaman appreciated the excellent support of the World Bank for G20 India Presidency and said she was looking forward to further deepening this partnership to secure tangible outcomes at the leaders’ summit in September.
The finance minister mentioned that bridging the knowledge and technology gaps is key to future economic development and the World Bank should accelerate efforts to share the Indian development experience with the Global South.
The two leaders discussed India’s sectoral priorities that include municipal financing, logistics, recycling of water and renewable energy grids, for seeking assistance from the World Bank Group in leveraging private investments.
“India gets a lot of its GDP from domestic consumption. So, even if the world would slowdown for a few months, India has a natural cushion by the fact that it is more domestic consumption oriented,” Banga said.
India-born Ajay Banga is here to attend the meetings of the G20 being held under India’s presidency.
About the global economic outlook, he said, “I think, we did better than we all thought. But I still feel that there’s more risk on the downside in terms of a slowdown over the early part of next year.
“As I said, in the G20, meeting, forecasts are not destiny and so you shouldn’t just think that the forecast is right. Think about what can be done.”
Banga, 63, took over as the World Bank President last month, becoming the first person of colour to head either of the two global financial institutions — the World Bank and the International Monetary Fund.
He is on his first visit to India after taking charge as the president.
Banga informed the finance minister about the World Bank’s recent initiative of Private Sector Investment Lab and that it is looking forward to a partnership with India to implement ideas that come from this initiative in the country.
Ideas implemented successfully can become a working model for other countries, he added.
PTI
