- Monday, February 24, 2025
Speaking in an interview with India Today, she said that India will continue to be amongst the fastest-growing economies in the world in 2024, thanks to two significant factors — physical and digital infrastructure.
By: Shubham Ghosh
GITA Gopinath, the Indian-born first deputy managing director of the International Monetary Fund (IMF), has said that while the South Asian economy was good, it still required consistent reforms to continue its run as the world’s fastest-growing economy.
The 52-year-old economist told an Indian news outlet in an exclusive interview on the sidelines of the ongoing World Economic Forum (WEF) annual meeting in Davos, Switzerland, on Tuesday (16) that while India’s growth is good and it is one of the fastest growing economies globally, it also needs to keep up reforms consistently.
She told India Today that India will continue to be amongst the fastest-growing economies in the world in 2024, thanks to two significant factors — physical and digital infrastructure.
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“Two big areas of progress have been physical infrastructure, roads, ports, airports and so on, but also digital infrastructure. I think both of them have been areas of remarkable progress, and that is beneficial to all parts of society, and not just the very rich,” she was quoted as saying during the conversation.
The IMF official, who was born in the eastern Indian city of Kolkata, also said that the growth of consumption in India was “doing quite well”, even as it is likely to slow down in the days ahead.
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Gopinath praised the government’s public investment in boosting economic growth but at the same time, she highlighted that India “needs much more reforms for it to be able to truly realise its potential”.
“In terms of specific reforms, for instance, financial access to medium, small and micro enterprises. I think it’s still an area where more work is needed, like credit growth for that particular sector. Labour market reforms are needed. Female labour force participation is incredibly low. More needs to be done to bring that up,” she was quoted as telling the Indian news outlet.
The top IMF official also said that reforms were required not just at the federal level but also at the state level.
Gopinath went on to add that reforms were not just required at the national level, but at the state government level too.
“Firstly, continue the good investment that’s been made in public infrastructure, including digital public infrastructure. Much more is needed. Continue that good work. It’s shown to bring in a lot more activity,” Gopinath said.
When asked whether India would see the FY24 growth of around 7 per cent as estimated by its central bank, she said one would have to wait and see. She said while the country had a very strong first half for FY24, more slowing is expected in the second half.
