New Delhi, October 18 (IANS). Top economist Kyunghoon Kim on Sunday said India's economic progress in the last decade deserves appreciation. He said the country's continued strong economic growth and improving economic situation provide ample reason for optimism for the future.
In a post on social media platform
“My conclusion remains the same. India faces many challenges, but particularly its economic progress over the last decade and positive growth prospects in the medium term are worth celebrating. This progress is extremely important for a country of 1.4 billion people,” he said.
Kim's remarks came at a time when he had highlighted India's strong growth journey a day earlier and said that almost all major global institutions like the International Monetary Fund (IMF), Asian Development Bank (ADB) and the World Bank have increased India's growth rate forecast for the current year and the next year to more than 7 percent.
According to the economist, the Indian economy has demonstrated extraordinary strength after the Covid-19 pandemic. The economy contracted by 5.8 percent during the pandemic, but then grew by 9.7 percent in 2021 and the growth rate remained above 7 percent for the next four years.
Kim said many economists, including himself, had to continually revise their growth rate forecasts upward as each quarter's GDP figures beat expectations.
He said that as a result India has recorded a growth rate of more than 7 percent for five consecutive years. This performance is comparable to the period from 2003 to 2007, when India first entered the list of the world's fastest growing major economies.
Kim also said that the average annual growth rate of 7.83 percent during 2021 to 2025 is the second highest average growth rate for any five-year period since 1960. Only during 2003 to 2007 the average growth rate was 7.89 percent.
Referring to the increasing size of India's economy, Kim said that today's India stands at a completely different economic level compared to two decades ago.
He said that in the year 2007, the size of India's economy was a little more than 1 trillion dollars, whereas now it is approaching 4 trillion dollars. In such a situation, the same growth rate now means economic expansion and value creation on a much larger scale.
–IANS
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