India projected to grow at 7% in 2022-23, says Sitharaman at IMF meet

INTERNATIONAL DESK: Finance Minister Nirmala Sitharaman on Friday said that with both the International Monetary Fund (IMF) and the World Bank having projected India as the fastest growing major economy in 2023, it will stay on course and is projected to grow at 7 per cent in 2022-23 as per the government’s own economic survey 2022-23.

She said this during the plenary meeting of the International Monetary and Financial Committee (IMFC) at the IMF headquarters in Washington.

In her intervention, the finance minister highlighted that conducive domestic policy environment along with the Indian government’s focus on structural reforms has kept domestic economic activity in India robust.

Sitharaman underlined the learning from the pandemic that digitalisation, especially digital public infrastructure (DPI) is a positive-catalyst for the global economy and how India’s DPI revolutionised the access and created a vibrant entrepreneurial ecosystem.

Referring to global sovereign debt roundtable, the finance minister said it has demonstrated a constructive way forward with multi-stakeholder cooperation for other vulnerable countries and India is pleased to be part of the team that provided solution for Sri Lanka and Suriname.

Through India’s G20 presidency, Sitharaman reiterated the commitment towards exploring solutions through stakeholder engagements, to pressing global challenges, which disproportionately harm the poorest and most vulnerable.

In conclusion of her intervention, while urging all the G20 members to continue to support multilateral efforts, Sitharaman emphasised on engaging in positive dialogue to fight the challenge of global fragmentation. (BS)