In recent days, speculation has been rife in the Indian media and its intellectual sphere about the nation’s economy suffering a slowdown.
The economy which slowed down to a 3 year low of 5.7% in the 2nd quarter of 2017, led to various reports detailing the steps which the Modi government can take to boost growth. There were also projections about India’s imminent economic slowdown which were blamed on India’s poor macro-economic management over the years.
What fuelled these economic fears further was the article by former Finance Minister and BJP Leader Yashwant Sinha, where he made sweeping charges against the Modi government and its management of the Indian economy. In the whole article he painted a pretty grim picture of the current economic scenario. These claims of his were later rebutted by Rajya Sabha MP Rajeev Chandrasekhar and Aviation Minister Jayant Sinha.
Now various heads of prominent economic bodies too have started to raise their voices to assert that the Indian Economy is on the right track:
- Christine Lagarde, the International Monetary Fund Chief on Sunday stated that the Indian Economy is on a solid growth track in the medium to long term, thanks to the structural reforms which have been undertaken by the government. According to her the recent slowdown due to implementation of GST and Demonetisation would only have a short term impact.
- The World Bank President Jim Yong Kim has claimed that the India economy has been growing pretty robustly and even predicted a strong global growth this year.
- Global financial services firm, Morgan Stanley has also emerged as being bullish about the Indian economy. As per its projections, India which already is on a path of growth, can become the world’s fastest growing economy over the next decade due to its drive towards digitisation. As per the report, this digitisation of the predominantly cash based economy and tax reforms have the potential to amplify India’s growth.
- Anna Marrs the Regional CEO, ASEAN & South Asia of Standard Chartered was reported as predicting that the Indian Economy has a great promise for growth expansion and called it resilient.
- The European Commission has also come out strongly in favour of the Indian Economy by asserting that nobody outside India calls a 5.7% as a slowdown. As per its President Jean-Claude Juncker, this 5.7% ”slowdown” would be considered as a major performance in Europe.