India's inclusive growth applauded by International community: IMF Executive Director Subramanian

India's top economist at IMF praises India's growth, digital infrastructure, and inclusive growth, highlighting global optimism towards India.

The world is bullish on India, the country's top economist, currently Executive Director of the International Monetary Fund (IMF) has said, noting that India’s public digital infrastructure and inclusive growth is not only being talked about but also applauded by the International community.

“I think the Indian economy has been growing overall very well. Post-COVID, the growth rate has consistently been 7%. Of course, there's been a little bit of a dip this quarter. Partly it is because of the slowdown in capital expenditures. That itself is because of some of the election cycles. Also, there's been some impact on exports. But I expect this dip to be temporary,” said Krishnamurthy V. Subramanian, Executive Director at IMF.

“From the vantage point that I've been sitting on the IMF board, I have no hesitation in saying the world is bullish on India. The kind of public digital infrastructure that India has enacted, is something that almost every of my board colleagues often finds a mention. They mention it with sincere appreciation. Apart from that, the kind of inclusive growth that India has pursued over the last decade is also something that comes up for appreciation,” Mr. Subramanian, the former Indian Chief Economic Advisor and author of the latest book “India@100” told PTI in an interview.

Responding to a question, Mr. Subramanian said “India during Covid chose to implement economic policy that was different from the rest of the world. While the rest of the world identified COVID as purely a demand-side shock, India was the only large economy to diagnose COVID as both a demand-side and a supply-side shock,” he said.

Therefore, India implemented a judicious mix of demand and supply-side policies, spent judiciously but making sure that it reached those that were generally impacted by the pandemic, he said.

As a result, when the war in Europe started and the supply side problems that resulted, which led to substantial inflation in the rest of the world, it did not have as much of an impact on India, he explained.

“This is something that is very clearly revealed. If you see, while in the rest of the world, during the last couple of years, these countries, especially advanced economies have faced anywhere between two and a half to four times the historical average inflation, India had less than its historical average,” he said.