'8% growth projection for India is not ours, it is Indian representative's view': IMF

 An International Monetary Fund representative has said that the recent projections made by Krishnamurthy Subramanian, Executive Director at IMF, about India's growth figures is his personal and does not represent the views of the global body. 

Subramanian, at a event in New Delhi on March 28, had said Indian economy could grow at 8 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 had said last month.

Taking a different stand, Julie Kozack, IMF spokesperson, on Thursday said: "The views conveyed ...by Mr. Subramanian were in his role as India's representative at the IMF."

Kozack was asked about IMF's stand on India's growth projection and why was it different from Subramanian's numbers.

The IMF spokesperson clarified, "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."

In January, IMF had revised India’s growth forecast upwards in its latest World Economic Outlook update for January.

IMF said it expects India’s GDP to grow by 6.7% in FY24 as against 6.3% forecast made in the October 2023 update of its report. For FY25 and FY26, India’s GDP growth is seen steady at 6.5%, said IMF.

“Growth in India is projected to remain strong at 6.5% in both 2024 (FY25) and 2025 (FY26), with an upgrade from October of 0.2 percentage point for both years, reflecting resilience in domestic demand,” the IMF said in its report.