International Monetary Fund ahead of its next month’s spring meeting with the world bank stated that India’s economy is on the path of gradual recovery.
IMF’s spokesperson Gerry Rice briefed the reporters on India’s gradual economic recovery and stated that “India’s economy is on the path of gradual recovery, real GDP growth, return to positive territory in fourth quarter of 2020. And that’s for the first time actually since the start of the pandemic and it’s supported by a pickup in gross, fixed capital formation,”.
Recently, it was mandated that Indian economy could have to suffer due to potential capital flight from its economy due to surge in US bond market, thus such supporting claims by IMF can help boost investors’ confidence in Indian markets. This statement further also adds weight to the Indian authorities’ claim of a sustained demand in the economy.
Rice commenting on the surge of covid positive cases in the economy, further added that, “Beyond that, I can say that high frequency indicators including PMIs trade and mobility suggests a continued recovery in the first quarter of this year, ‘21; however, the recent emergence of the variants and localized lockdowns could pose risks to a sustained recovery,”.
Reportedly, the IMF is scheduled to release its World Economic Outlook on April 6. India is currently witnessing an increase in Covid-19 cases. India on Friday, reportedly registered 59,118 covid positive cases taking to its rueful covid list, taking the country’s overall count to 1,18,46,652. India still remains as world’s 3rd worst affected country.
Worryingly, the Union health ministry had on Wednesday said that a new “double mutant variant” of the coronavirus and “variants of concern” had been detected in 18 different states in India. The ministry, however, had also maintained that the new strain had not been found in sufficient numbers to establish or explain the rapid rise in cases in some states.
In January, the IMF had projected an 11.5% growth rate for India’s economy in 2021. The organization had additionally estimated that India’s economy had contracted by 8% in 2020. The figure was a positive revision of its previous estimate in October 2020, when it had predicted that the growth rate would shrink by 10.3%.