IMF distances from its top Indian executive, says ‘8% growth projection for India not ours’

The international financial institution’s spokesperson responded over recent remarks made by Subramanian, in which he projected a growth rate of eight per cent for India, which is different from the last growth rate projections by the IMF.

• Shubham
• 05 April, 2024

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By: Shubham Ghosh

THE International Monetary Fund (IMF) on Friday (5) clarified that the recent remarks made by Krishnamurthy Subramanian, its executive director, about India’s growth figures doesn’t represent the body’s views and were made in his role as the country’s representative at the IMF.

“The views conveyed …by Mr. Subramanian were in his role as India’s representative at the IMF,” the international body’s spokesperson Julie Kozack told reporters in Washington DC.

She was responding to a question on recent remarks by Subramanian, in which he projected a growth rate of eight per cent for India, which is different from the last growth rate projections by the IMF.

Read: IMF reacts after Pakistan says it reached all financial benchmarks

At an event in New Delhi on March 28, Subramanian said the Indian economy could grow at eight per cent till 2047, if the country redoubles the good policies that it has implemented over the last 10 years and accelerate reforms.

“So, the basic idea is that with the kind of growth that India has registered in the last 10 years, if we can redouble the good policies that we have implemented over the last 10 years and accelerate the reforms, then India can grow at 8 per cent from here on till 2047,” Subramanian, who was the chief economic adviser to the Indian government between 2018-21, had said.

Read: IMF revises growth rate for India while UK predicted to slow down

The IMF spokesperson said, “We do have an executive board. That executive board is made up of executive directors who are representatives of countries or groups of countries, and they make up the Executive Board of the IMF. And that’s distinct, of course, from the work of the IMF staff.”

The IMF would be updating its World Economic Outlook in the next couple of weeks.

“But our growth projections as of January were for medium term growth of 6.5 per cent, and that was a slight upward revision relative to October. Again, we will be presenting the latest forecast in just a couple of weeks,” Kozack said.