IMF On India

The new National People's Power (NPP) government in Sri Lanka on Tuesday announced its first reversal of a key element in the ongoing IMF bailout programme concerning the loss-making state-owned enterprises. The government reversed the Electricity Act, approved in June this year under then-president Ranil Wickremesinghe's government, introducing major reforms to the state power entity Ceylon Electricity Board (CEB). The Marxist NPP trade unions had then agitated against the bill. A CEB trade union leader who led the agitation is an NPP candidate in the parliamentary election scheduled for November 14. A CEB statement on Monday said the entity's privatisation programme would be scrapped and vowed to amend the CEB Reforms Act of 2024. It said there would be no privatisation of state-owned power plants, transmission and distribution processes. The CEB Reforms Act of 2024 paved the way for private sector competition in power generation. The move was aimed at easing the burden on publ

India remains the largest growing economy in the world, a senior official from the International Monetary Fund said, observing that the country's macroeconomic fundamentals are good. "India is said to remain the largest growing economy in the world. We project growth at seven per cent in FY24-25, supported by recovery in rural consumption, as there have been favourable harvests. Inflation is expected to decline to 4.4 per cent in FY24-25, despite some volatility as food prices normalize," Krishna Srinivasan, Director for the IMF Asia Pacific Department, told PTI in an interview on Tuesday. In terms of other fundamentals, he said, "despite elections, the fiscal consolidation remains on track. Reserve position is pretty good. Macro fundamentals, generally speaking, for India are good". He suggested that the country's reform priorities post-elections need to be in three areas. "One is, there's an issue about creating jobs in India and so on. In that context, I think implementing the .

IMF Executive Director Krishnamurthy V Subramanian noted the remarkable progress being made in financial inclusion through initiatives like the 'Pradhan Mantri Jan-Dhan Yojana'

Hard economic decisions will help its future

This uncertainty, it warns, could have profound effects on policymaking, particularly given the high cost of living and other political complexities

Also sees world economy growing faster at 3.2% in 2024

The Reserve Bank has told the International Monetary Fund (IMF) that the objective of frequent interventions in the forex market is to curb excessive volatility, dismissing the Fund's rationale for reclassifying India's exchange rate regime. The IMF, following the Article IV consultation with the Indian authorities, reclassified the status of the exchange rate regime to "stabilised arrangement" from "floating" for period between December 2022 to October 2023. India's Executive Director at IMF K V Subramanian and Senior Advisors Sanjay Kumar Hansda and Anand Singh questioned the selection period adopted by the Fund for analysis and also reclassification of the country's exchange rate regime. "... (IMF) staff characterisation of India's exchange rate as a 'stabilised arrangement' is incorrect and inconsistent with reality. As in the past, exchange rate flexibility would continue to be the first line of defence in absorbing external shocks, with interventions limited to addressing ...

Finance and central bank deputies meeting to start discussions on key agenda

India played a crucial role in the International Monetary Fund (IMF's) clearance of a 48-month Extended Fund Facility (EFF) worth USD 2.9 billion to crisis-hit Sri Lanka, reported True Ceylon

As G-20 President India is doing an excellent job by focusing on issues that matters the most for the global community, the International Monetary Fund (IMF) Managing Director Kristalina Georgieva said on Thursday. India assumed the year-long presidency of the G20 in December last year and aims to host a leaders' summit in New Delhi in early September. The G20 is an important forum of the world's 20 major developed and developing economies. "India is doing an excellent job in focusing the work of the G-20 on what matters the most. What matters the most is to move through very complex policy challenges, comparing notes and coming up with the right policy actions, Georgieva told reporters at a news conference here on the sidelines of the annual meetings of the International Monetary Fund and the World Bank. What matters the most is to re-energize global growth and here India brings its fantastic track record on digitalisation and how digitalisation can reenergize the economy," she sai

Both the leaders shared concerns on key downside risks to the global economy and the cross-border effects due to the geopolitical situation and tighter financial conditions

An order stated that the Appointments Committee of the Cabinet has approved the appointment of Subramanian, who is currently professor (finance) at the Indian School of Business

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N K Singh, Chairman of the 15th Finance Commission, on Tuesday said the IMF's decision to revise India's potential growth forecast downwards to 6 per cent

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The International Monetary Fund stands ready to strengthen its dialogue and scale-up its technical collaboration with India, spokesperson Gerry Rice has said

In its annual World Economic Outlook, the Washington-based global financial institution said that the Indian economy is expected to grow by 6.9% in 2022

India's economy is on the path of gradual recovery, real GDP growth, return to positive territory in fourth quarter of 2020, IMF's spokesperson Gerry Rice said

But there is a need to provide a social safety net to the vulnerable cultivators, IMF's Chief Economist Gita Gopinath has said

IMF Managing Director Kristalina Georgieva asked the country to do more this year to support an accelerated transformation of the economy