WB projects 7.2% growth rate for India in 2017

Noting that India is recovering from the temporary adverse effects of demonetisation, the World Bank has projected a strong 7.2% growth rate for India this year, against 6.8% growth in 2016.

Even as the World Bank has revised India’s growth figures by 0.4 percentage points as compared to its January forecast, India remains the fastest growing major economy in the world, World Bank officials said.

The growth projections for China remains unchanged at 6.5% for 2017, and then 6.3% for the next two years 2018 and 2019.

The World Bank in its latest Global Economic Prospects, projects India’s growth to 7.5% in 2018 and 7.7% in 2019.

In both the years, the forecast has been downgraded by 0.3% and 0.1 percentage points as compared to the January 2017 forecast.

“A downgrade to India’s fast pace of expansion,” the World Bank said, is “mainly reflecting a softer-than-expected recovery in private investment.”

In 2016, in India, activity was underpinned by favourable monsoon rains that supported agriculture and rural consumption, an increase in infrastructure spending, and robust government consumption, the report said.