The International Monetary Fund (IMF) raised India’s growth projection for the Financial Year 2025 by 20 basis points (bps) to 6.5 per cent in its World Economic Outlook (WEO) update.
The data cited the buoyant domestic spending and improved global growth prospects.
For FY24, the IMF raised India’s growth estimate by 40 bps to 6.7 per cent compared to its October report, which is still lower than the 7.3 per cent growth projected by the National Statistical Office earlier this month.
“Growth in India is projected to remain strong at 6.5 per cent in both 2024 (FY25) and 2025 (FY26), with an upgrade from October of 0.2 per cent point for both years, reflecting resilience in domestic demand,” the IMF said in its report.
The estimate, however, falls below the 7 per cent growth projection by the Ministry of Finance.
The Union Finance Ministry has released a report titled ‘Indian Economy — A Review’ saying the Indian economy is expected to grow at a rate above 7 per cent in coming years.
It said the growth will be riding on the strength of its financial sector and other recent and future structural reforms and can aspire to become a USD 7 trillion economy by 2030.
For the global economic projection, the IMF raised it for 2024 by 20 bps to 3.1 per cent , compared to its October report, citing greater-than-expected resilience in the United States and several large emerging market and developing economies, as well as fiscal support in China.
This is still below the historical average global growth of 3.8 per cent , with elevated central bank policy rates to fight inflation, withdrawal of fiscal support amid high debt weighing on economic activity, and low underlying productivity growth.
For China, the IMF increased its growth forecast for 2024 by 40 bps to 4.6 per cent .
“The upgrade reflects carryover from stronger-than-expected growth in 2023 and increased government spending on capacity building against natural disasters,” it reasoned.