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The Asian Development Bank (ADB) will look to scale up its annual lending assistance to India to over $4 billion (including the private sector lending) in the next few years, its country director for India Kenichi Yokoyoma said here on Friday.
In 2018, ADB had committed $3 billion in sovereign lending to India — the highest ever annual commitment. In addition to the sovereign lending, this multilateral institution lent $557 million to the private sector in 2018.
“The increased lending envelope for India is in line with the commitment made by ADB to the Government of India for upscaling ADB’s lending to the country,” Yokoyoma said. He also said ADB’s scaling up its annual lending assistance to India in the next few years is in keeping with the government’s expectations and alignment with the country partnership strategy for India for 2018-22. ADB’s overall India portfolio currently comprises 82 ongoing projects worth $13.7 billion spanning six sectors and covering 25 States.
ADB has also committed $1 billion per year over the next five years for the ₹2,500-km East Coast Economic Corridor (ECEC) development. The multilateral institution has supplemented its lending assistance to India with knowledge support through analytical and operational studies to help partners identify and develop transformative projects.
Growth forecast
Meanwhile, ADB has stuck to its December 2018 forecast of 7.3 per cent Gross Domestic Product (GDP) growth for India in 2018-19. Indian economy is on a recovery mode and credit flow to industry and infrastructure are likely to improve in the coming days, said Abhijit Sengupta, ADB Economist.
The waning effects of transient shocks and low oil prices is expected to bolster economic performance in the next fiscal, he said. ADB had pegged India GDP growth forecast for 2019-20 at 7.6 per cent, a notch higher than the World Bank's recent growth forecast for India for the same year.
PTI reports: Meanwhile joining the debate on farm loan waivers, Yokoyama said such write-offs were against economic principles and cannot effectively address the agrarian distress. Yokoyama also advocated direct transfer of funds to targeted beneficiaries as it would cut down leakages.
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