JOIN USIndia is a bright spot in the cloudy global horizon, visiting International Monetary Fund (IMF) Managing Director Christine Lagarde said on Monday as she complimented the government on the “focused way” in which it has been working to revive the economy.
“The results of this are visible and India's growth rate has crossed 7.5 per cent,” she said at a meeting with Prime Minister Narendra Modi here. Modi, in turn, said that his focus is on inclusive growth in which more jobs are created and every region flourished. The prime minister said that the reforms are not restricted to legislation alone but “implementation and direction” are equally important.
Lagarde also met Finance Minister Arun Jaitley during which the two leaders agreed to jointly host a conference in India on ‘Advancing Asia: Investing for the Future’ in March 2016.
The conference would showcase that the Asia-Pacific region has rebounded quickly from the global financial crisis of 2008, and India — and several other countries in the region — have grown rapidly.
This would be for the first time that such a conference is being held in India. Earlier, speaking at an event, Lagarde underlined the need to ease regulations for private investment to pick up.
“Much needs to be done in easing land acquisition, expediting clearances, and establishing a stable regulatory regime so that the private sector can invest. These issues are on the radar of policymakers, which is promising, they must be on the action list,” she said at an event here.
Lagarde said the recent policy reforms and improved business confidence had provided a boost to economic activity, but added that labour reforms are a starting point for improving the ease of doing business.
“A good starting point is to make Indian labour markets more flexible,” she said and referred to an IMF study suggesting a number of legal and institutional barriers should be removed for facilitating the entry of women in the labour market.
She said just as many countries around the world were grappling with low growth, India had been marching in the opposite direction. “With China slowing down, this means India will likely emerge as the world’s fastest-growing large economy,” she said.
She also complimented the fiscal consolidation road map presented in the Union Budget for 2015-16 and welcomed the adoption of the new monetary framework. On the fall in oil prices, she said it provides a golden opportunity to cut energy subsidies and use the savings for more targeted cash transfer systems to protect the poor.