India is projected to grow at 7.4 per cent in 2018 as against China’s 6.8 per cent, the IMF said on 23 January, 2018 making it the fastest growing country among emerging economies. India is reclaiming its place as a growth leader after a short slowdown due to GST and demonetization, said IMF’s David Lipton.
In its latest World Economic Outlook (WEO) update released in Davos, Switzerland on the sidelines of the World Economic Forum, the International Monetary Fund has projected a 7.8 per cent growth rate for India in 2019. Growth rate projections for both 2018 and 2019 remains unchanged since its October 2017 WEO projections.
China, during the same period, is expected to grow at 6.6 per cent and 6.4 per cent respectively, the IMF said.
The IMF said, the aggregate growth forecast for the emerging markets and developing economies for 2018 and 2019 is unchanged, with marked differences in the outlook across regions. It projected India to grow at 7.4 per cent in 2018 as against China’s 6.8 per cent.
Emerging and developing Asia will grow at around 6.5 per cent over 201819, broadly the same pace as in 2017,” it said, adding that the region continues to account for over half of world growth.
“Growth is expected to moderate gradually in China, pick up in India, and remain broadly stable in the ASEAN-5 region,” the IMF said.
Notably, with a growth rate of 7.1 per cent, India was the fastest growing country among emerging economies in the year 2016.
But due to the demonetization in late 2016 and implementation of the Goods and Services Tax (GST), India’s economy slowed down a little bit to 6.7 per cent in 2017. IMF said that India is reclaiming its place as a growth leader.