No wonder India's economy is growing faster than China, says IMF APAC Director Krishna Srinivasan

According to Krishna Srinivasan, director of the IMF's Asia and Pacific (`AC) department, India's emergence as the fastest-growing economy, overtaking China, is not surprising given the parity in the size of the two nations' economies.

“China is more than four times bigger than India and in that sense, it should not be surprising if India is growing faster than China today,” Srinivasan told ANI.

Krishna Srinivasan of the International Monetary Fund (IMF) praised India's economic performance and called the forecast growth rate of 6.8% for the 2024-25 financial year “very impressive”. These comments were made during a discussion on India's economic prospects with ANI on April 20.

Srinivasan spoke about India's ability to cope with multiple shocks, including the COVID-19 pandemic, the Russia-Ukraine war and the recent tensions in the Gulf region, and praised the country's resilience. “India has successfully weathered several shocks that we have experienced in the recent past,” he said, as quoted by ANI.

Srinivasan attributed India's impressive growth to strong private consumption and public investment and said: “I don't see any warning signs in the short term.” However, he stressed the need for comprehensive reforms, particularly in education and healthcare, to realize the full potential of India's growing workforce to exploit.

“India has a young, growing population. About 15 million new workers are expected to be added every year,” Srinivasan pointed out. “To capitalize on this demographic advantage, significant investments in education and healthcare are critical to enable the growing workforce to contribute effectively to the economy.”

Srinivasan expressed optimism about India's medium-term prospects with a growth rate of around 6.5%, but stressed the importance of reforms. “If comprehensive reforms are carefully implemented, India could achieve a growth rate of 6.5% or more in the next few years,” ANI was quoted as saying.

(With inputs from ANI)

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