IMF lowers India’s economic growth to 6.9% in 2012

28 Apr 2012 Evaluate

The International Monetary Fund (IMF) has stated that apart from cyclical factors such as global uncertainty and policy tightening, domestic factors like sluggish governance and slow pace of project approvals have weakened business sentiment in India. IMF happens to be the second international institution after S&P that has raised a red flag against the sluggish governance in the country.

In its Asia-Pacific Regional Economic Outlook, IMF has called for renewed efforts to revive the deteriorating structural reform agenda in the country. It has also stated that to improve business sentiment and therefore the investment climate, the government should remove infrastructure bottlenecks and expand education opportunities.

The report has devoted a special section on the possible demographics dividend for India due to a young population, but has urged the nation to step up efforts on education, facilitating trade and easing labour laws to maximize possible gains. It further goes on to say that it is important for India to make progress in reducing barriers to trade, in order to maximise the potential of its continuing demographic dividend.

As per IMF, fiscal consolidation is the key to contain inflationary pressures and create space for priority development needs. The corrective measures suggested are a reduction in fuel subsidy, fiscal consolidation, boosting infrastructure and spurring investment.

It has observed that headline inflation has declined to 6.89% in March, from 6.95% in February. However IMF has warned that it is still above the historical average. More importantly IMF has lowered India’s economic growth forecast to 6.9% in 2012, marginally lower than the earlier estimate of 7%. It however expects the growth to pick up to 7.3% in 2013.

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