‘World is waiting!’ says Vedanta boss as IMF shows optimism for Indian economy

Agarwal on Twitter wrote that he read in Financial Times that, “Most countries are slowing down while India is world’s only large economy in “bright spot”, with strong indicators showing robust growth this year and next”.

Hailing the achievement of India, the Vedanta Chairman added, ” The world is watching and waiting for us…as our Amrit Kaal has just begun”.

At present mood of mounting pessimism is taking hold across the globe due to soaring food prices, the Russian-Ukraine war, and geopolitical uncertainty which have damaged the prospects of businesses and consumers.

Hard economic data and leading financial indicators have signalled that momentum in the world economy is stalling.

However, when every country is witnessing an economic slowdown, India has remained unimpacted, as per a top International Monetary Fund (IMF) official.

India is the world’s only large economy described as a “bright spot”, with strong indicators pointing to robust growth this year and next.

While the rest of the world’s major economies are struggling with mounting economic problems according to IMF’s data.

“Almost every country is slowing. In that context, India is doing better and is in a relative bright spot compared to the other countries in the region,” IMF Director of Asia and Pacific Department, Krishna Srinivasan said.

Srinivasan added, “We expect countries accounting for 1/3 of the global economy to go into a recession this year or the next. And inflation is rampant. So that is the overarching story”.

This week, IMF in its World Economic Outlook projected a growth rate of 6.8% in 2022 as compared to 8.7% in 2021 for India.

IMF has sharply cut India’s economic growth estimate for FY23, citing the impact of external headwinds and weaker-than-expected second-quarter growth.

IMF has praised the Reserve bank of India (RBI) for tightening the monetary policy to curb inflation in the country.

“The RBI has appropriately been tightening to fight inflation as the inflation is above target, and since May, if my memory serves me well, it sort of delivers 190 basis points rate hikes and we think further tightening is needed to bring inflation to its target,” Garcia Pascual, Deputy Division Chief of the Monetary and Capital Markets Department of the IMF said in a conference in Washinton.