ADB expects Indian economy to grow 7.3% next fiscal year
The Asian Development Bank (ADB) expects India’s growth to pick up in the coming financial year ending March 31, 2019 to 7.3 percent from 6.7 percent in the current year, said the Bank’s Vice-president (operations 1) Zhang Wencai recently told Xinhua in New Delhi.
Zhang said inflation is likely to remain modest, and average less than five percent in the forthcoming financial year. Some recent measures taken by the government such as GST (Goods and Services Tax), improving ease of doing business, bolstering agriculture and rural development in next year’s budget, are expected to boost growth in the short run, he added.
According to Zhang, India had the potential to grow at over eight percent for a sustained period in the medium term due to a variety of factors, such as steady urbanization leading to strong increase in the consumption power and demand for goods and services, favorable demographics with a relatively young workforce, significant improvement in the ease of doing business during the past few years, and emerging as an attractive destination for FDI.
But, for achieving this, he said, India needs to overcome a few challenges, including resolving infrastructure bottlenecks, closing the gap between advanced and lagging regions where most of the poor are concentrated, improving its skilled workforce, addressing worsening environmental degradation, natural resource depletion, and climate change impacts.