Under An ‘Ambitious Government’, India To Grow At 7.3 Per Cent In 2018: World Bank

Under Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s "ambitious government”, which is “undertaking comprehensive reforms", India is expected to have a growth rate of 7.3 per cent in 2018 and 7.5 in the next two years, the World Bank has said.

India is estimated to have grown at 6.7 per cent in 2017 despite some initial setbacks from demonetisation and Goods and Services Tax, it said in the 2018 Global Economics Prospect report released on Wednesday (10 January).

According to Ayhan Kose, Director of Development Prospects Group who authored the report, India will have a higher growth rate than other major market economies over the next decade. Compared to a slowing China, the World Bank expects India’s growth rate to gradually accelerate, he said.

China is expected to grow at 6.4 per cent in 2018. The country's growth rate will drop significantly to 6.3 and 6.2 per cent in the next two years, respectively.

"India is a very large economy. It has a huge potential. At the same time, it has its own challenges. This government is very much aware of these challenges and is showing just doing its best in terms of dealing with them," Kose told PTI.

"India has an ambitious government undertaking comprehensive reforms. GST is a major reform to have harmonised taxes, is one nation one market one tax concept. Then, of course, the late 2016 demonetisation reform was there. The government is well aware of these short-term implications," the World Bank official said.