IMF retains India growth forecast at 7.5% for 2016-17

The International Monetary Fund (IMF) has retained India’s growth projection at 7.3 per cent in the current fiscal and 7.5 per cent for the next, even as it cut world economic outlook to 3.4 per cent for 2016.

In its update on World Economic Outlook (WEO), IMF said China’s growth would slow to 6.3 per cent in 2016 and further to 6 per cent in 2017, but India would continue to grow at a “robust pace”.

“India and the rest of emerging Asia are generally projected to continue growing at a robust pace, with some countries facing strong headwinds from China’s economic rebalancing and global manufacturing weakness,” IMF said.

As for the world growth, IMF today forecast 3.4 per cent for 2016 and 3.6 per cent for 2017.

For India, it retained the growth forecast at 7.3 per cent for the current fiscal and 7.5 per cent for 2016-17 and 2017-18.

“Risks to the global outlook remain tilted to the downside and relate to ongoing adjustments in the global economy: a generalised slowdown in emerging market economies, China’s rebalancing, lower commodity prices, and the gradual exit from extraordinarily accommodative monetary conditions in the US,” IMF added.

“If these key challenges are not successfully managed, global growth could be derailed,” it cautioned.

IMF said the pick-up in global activity is projected to be more gradual than in the October WEO, especially in emerging market and developing economies.

In the last WEO update released in October, IMF had projected India to grow at 7.3 per cent in the current fiscal and 7.5 per cent in 2016-17. As for world growth, figures were at 3.6 per cent for 2016 and 3.8 per cent for 2017.

Emerging market and developing economies account for over 70 per cent of the global growth.

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