Senior Congress leader P Chidambaram said he won't be surprised if GDP growth goes even lower after IMF lowered India's economic growth estimate for the current fiscal to 4.8 percent.
The International Monetary Fund (IMF) on Monday lowered growth estimate for India to 4.8 per cent for 2019, citing stress in the non-bank financial sector and weak rural income growth as the major factors for the downward revision.
The International Monetary Fund (IMF) on Monday slightly revised downwards the growth outlook for the global economy and flagged fundamental issues of reform in trade systems.
The Washington-based lender, after the first review, posed trust on continuity of IMF-backed reforms needed to bring Pakistan's economy on the stability path. But, it cautioned against fiscal slippages with risks to reforms remaining elevated. The growth was projected to further slide to 2.4 per cent in the current fiscal year from 3.3 percent in the last fiscal of 2018/19, The News International reported.
The International Monetary Fund (IMF) has said that India's high growth rate in recent years did not lead to a matching increase in formal sector jobs and labour market participation has declined. The IMF's report on its annual consultations with India released in Washington on Monday said that while India has lifted millions out of poverty as one of the world's fastest-growing economies, "recent labour market data suggests that unemployment is high while labour force participation has decreased, particularly for females."
An IMF mission is in Pakistan to review the cash-strapped country's quarterly performance under its USD 6 billion bailout package, which was finalised this year, according to a media report.
The successful completion of the first review would enable Islamabad to draw about $453 million from the Fund in first part of December, taking the total amount to almost $1.44 billion. The IMF had made in July this year an upfront disbursement of $991 million on completion of all prior actions committed by Pakistan before signing the fund programme, Dawn news reported on Monday.
“We see the Indian economy rebounding from our projected 6.1 per cent growth this fiscal year to something like 7 per cent in the next fiscal year (2020). We see the factors that will support growth, including monetary policy stimulus, working their way through the pipeline,” Jonathan Ostry, Deputy Director, Asia Pacific Department at the IMF, told reporters.
Addressing the annual meeting of the International Monetary Fund (IMF) in Washington, Sitharaman said a task force has been constituted in the finance ministry that will draw up a national infrastructure pipeline for the next five years.
In an apparent reference to Pakistan, Union Finance Minister Nirmala Sitharaman on Saturday said the integration of the IMF's lending policies with key provisions like anti-money laundering and anti-terror financing can significantly enhance its member nation's compliance on these issues that pose threat to the global economy.
It, however, said India should address continued fiscal consolidation and secure long-term stability of the fiscal conditions.
Asked if the government is still on track to maintain the fiscal deficit target to 3.3 per cent of the GDP, Nirmala Sitharaman said: "Fiscal deficit, I am not reviewing it now."
The International Monetary Fund on Thursday said though India has worked on the fundamentals of its economy, there are problems, including the long-term drivers of growth, that need to be addressed.
The IMF has downgraded India's GDP growth projection to 6.1 per cent in 2019. The new projection is 1.2 per cent down from its April projections. According to IMF, India will grow at 7.3 per cent in 2019. However, three months later it projected a slower growth rate for India in 2019, a downward revision of 0.3 per cent.
The International Monetary Fund looks at India as a country that recognizes the need for an environmentally sustainable development strategy as the global community gears up for a decisive fight against climate change.
Eminent economist Surjit S Bhalla was on Tuesday appointed as the Executive Director for India on the board of the International Monetary Fund (IMF), an official order said.
Georgieva is the first person from an emerging market economy to lead the IMF at a time when, she said, "global economic growth continues to disappoint and trade tension persist".
The IMF mission visited Islamabad and Karachi from September 16-20 and met top officials. The mission will come back in late October to assess the end-September program targets which will complete the first review by an IMF staff team.
The eight-member IMF team, led by Middle East and Central Asia Director Jihad Azour, will hold a series of meeting Prime Minister Imran Khan and other officials of the Pakistani government.
Cash-strapped Pakistan may seek the intervention of the US for relief from the tough conditions of the FATF and the IMF in lieu of its its services for the peaceful exit of American troops from Afghanistan, according to a media report.
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