Economy: “If India grows at 8% until 2047, it can become a $55 trillion economy”
Virendra Pandit
New Delhi: Reforms being the key, the Indian economy can grow at 8 percent or more until 2024, according to Krishnamurthy Venkata Subramanian, Executive Director for India, International Monetary Fund (IMF).
“And if India grows at 8 percent, it can become a USD 55 trillion economy by 2047.”
The target of an 8 percent growth is ambitious because India has not grown consistently at this rate before. But it is achievable, he said at an event on Thursday.
To make it achievable, India can accelerate reforms, and redouble the good policies that it has implemented since 2014, he said.
“So, the basic idea is that with the kind of growth that India has registered in the last 10 years if we can redouble the good policies that we have implemented over the last 10 years and accelerate the reforms, then India can grow at 8 percent from here on till 2047,” he said at the “Times Now Summit.”
India’s economy grew at better-than-expected 8.4 percent in the final three months of 2023, logging the fastest pace in the past one-and-a-half years.
The growth rate in the October-December 2023 quarter helped take the estimate for the current fiscal to 7.6 percent.
He pointed out that, historically, from 1991 onwards, India’s average growth has been slightly more than 7 percent.
Subramanian emphasized that India needs to strengthen its domestic economy as about 58 percent of the country’s GDP comes from domestic consumption.
“Therefore, you know, we do have the potential if we can create enough jobs, you know, that will lead to much higher consumption,” he said.
The IMF official also stressed the need to encourage the manufacturing sector for job creation.
Reforms are also required in the land, labor, capital, and logistics sectors.
“Reforms are required in the manufacturing sector, but at the same time, we also need reforms in our banking sector to provide credit for the manufacturing sector,” Subramanian asserted.
