India's growth prospect of 9.5% remains unchanged: IMF's Chief Economist

Mumbai: The growth outlook for India remains unchanged from July according to a report released by the World Economic Outlook (WEO) on Wednesday. The report was released ahead of the annual meeting of the IMF and the World Bank. According to calculations, India's economy which contracted by 7.3 per cent last year due to COVID-19 pandemic is expected to grow by 9.5 per cent in 2021 and 8.5 per cent in 2022.

"India came out of a very, very tough second wave and that led to a big downgrade in July but we have no change as of now," Gita Gopinath, Chief Economist of the IMF, told reporters during a virtual conference call on Tuesday.

Gopinath also remarked that India's robust vaccination programme would also help in boosting hopes for the economy and was doing a good job. Although there is no significant change in the forecast, the report shows a three-percentage point in 2021 and a 1.6 percentage point drop from its April projections.

On Tuesday, the IMF warned that delays in supply chains were darkening economic prospects around the world, especially since this meant developing nations were not getting adequate supplies of vaccines to help reopen countries. The global economy is expected to grow 5.9 per cent this year, only slightly lower than projected in July, before slowing to 4.9 per cent in 2022.