Retaining its growth forecast of 7.2 per cent for India for the current fiscal year, the International Monetary Fund (IMF), in its latest update report ‘World Economic Outlook, July 2017’ has said that the country would grow at 7.7 per cent in 2018-19, keeping growth rates forecast in line with the April 2017 forecast.
IMF further mentioned that even though activity in India slowed following the currency exchange initiative, the growth rate of 7.1 per cent in 2016 was higher than anticipated due to strong government spending and data revisions. It added that the growth in 2016-17 would have been lower had the government not intervened in terms of capital expenditure. It also said that despite China's growth projections being raised by a couple of notches, India's economy would still be the fastest growing among large economies. As per its projections, while India's economy is projected to grow in both 2017-18 and 2018-19, China's economy will expand at the same rate in 2017 at 6.7 per cent as it did in 2016.
IMF further said that inflation in advanced economies remains subdued and generally below targets, while noting that it has also been declining in several emerging economies, such as Brazil, India, and Russia. Furthermore, the report kept its global growth projections unchanged for this and next year at 3.5 per cent and 3.6 per cent respectively.