Washington: India remains among the fastest growing economies of the world and efforts are being made to make it grow faster, Union Finance Minister Nirmala Sitharaman said here Thursday. The minister is here to attend the annual meeting of the IMF and the World Bank.
The International Monetary Fund (IMF) has projected a reduced growth rate for India, but the country’s economy is ‘still growing as the fastest’, Nirmala Sitharaman told a group of Indian reporters here Thursday.
Sitharaman said she is ‘certainly not risking a comparison’ with China, even though the two countries growth rates have been projected at 6.1 per cent in a latest IMF report.
“The IMF (in its latest projections) reduces the growth (rate) for all the global economies. It reduces the growth for India too. But even otherwise, even with that India is still growing as the fastest growing economy,” asserted the finance minister.
As against India’s real growth rate of 6.8 per cent in 2018, the IMF in its latest World Economic Outlook released Tuesday, projected the country’s growth rate at 6.1 per cent for 2019 and noted that the Indian economy is expected to pick up at seven per cent in 2020.
“With all that being said, the point cannot be missed that India is still ‘growing the fastest’ in the given global scenario,” Sitharaman observed.
“I wish it can be more. I wish it can grow faster. I’ll make every effort to make it grow faster. But the fact remains that it is still growing faster. But that’s not going to make me complacent,” added Sitharaman.
Observing that several things about the economy are sentiment driven, Sitharaman said that obviously the narrative is ‘it’s not growing as much as it used to grow earlier’.
“It’s not eight. It’s not seven. It’s come down to six and so on. Yes, all these are very important. But I don’t want to underestimate the potential that India is showing even in this adverse circumstance,” Sitharaman pointed out.
When asked if the slowdown of Indian economy is cyclical or structural, Sitharaman said it may be both, may not be both, may be partly one or may be partly the other.
“I’m not getting into that debate at this stage. I don’t have the luxury of sitting and looking at which way it (economy) is going,” Nirmala Sitharaman stated. “On the contrary, I have all the time to know what people want me to do and (I) respond to them accordingly,” added the finance minister.
Meanwhile Sitharaman also observed that there has been narrowing of trade differences between India and the US. She said that she is hoping, that the two countries be able to enter into a trade deal soon.
“I hope to have an agreement sooner. Obviously narrowing (of difference) is happening,” Sitharaman informed. “The Commerce Ministry is working on it and hope that the negotiations will get concluded soon. I know the intensity with which the negotiations are going on and a few issues on which they could be some differences are being sorted out,” added Sitharaman.
Agencies
