India’s growth to pick up despite challenges: Jaitley

JAITLEY SAID INDIA WANTS $2 BILLION LOANS FOR VARIOUS PROJECTS FROM THE NDB, EARLIER CALLED BRICS BANK AS IT WAS SET UP BY INDIA, CHINA, BRAZIL, RUSSIA AND SOUTH AFRICA

India’s economic growth is expected to pick up in the coming years following a raft of reforms such as demonetisation and the rollout of the Goods and Services Tax (GST), although developing countries face global challenges of trade restrictions, finance minister Arun Jaitley said on Saturday.

Addressing the second annual meeting of the New Development Bank (NDB) in Delhi, Jaitley said a possible shift towards inwardlooking policies and protectionism and a sharper than expected tightening in global financial conditions, the crisis in Europe and increased geopolitical tensions, posed a challenge to the emerging economies.

Citing the projections of International Monetary Fund, Jaitley said India’s GDP growth in 2016 would be 6.6%, while the same would be 7.2% and 7.7% in 2017 and 2018 respectively.

The IMF projections for 2017 and 2018 corresponds with India’s financial years (April-march) 2017-18 and 2018-19.

India’s stats office, CSO, has estimated economic growth to slow to 7.1% in 2016-17 from 7.9% in the previous year.

The government’s Economic Survey projects the GDP growth at 6.75-7.5% in 2017-18.

“We have successfully imple ures,” Jaitley said listing out the demonetisation drive, passage of crucial bills in Lok Sabha to roll out the Goods and Services Tax the Insolvency and Bankruptcy law, and relaxing foreign invest ment rules.

Jaitley said India wants $2 bil lion loans for various projects from the NDB, earlier called BRICS Bank as it was set up by the emerging nations India China, Brazil, Russia and South Africa. “India has a huge unmet need for investment in infra structure, estimated to the tune o ₹43 lakh crore (about $646 billion in next five years,” he said.

About 70% of the funds will be required in the power, roads and urban infrastructure sectors, he said. “This offers an enormous opportunity to an institution like NDB, whose core mandate is sus tainable infrastructure develop ment. We shall work with the NDB to develop a strong shelf of projects in specific areas ”