A team from the International Monetary Fund (IMF) on Tuesday met finance ministry officials to assess the health of the Indian economy amid claims by policymakers green shoots on some parameters were visible.
The team came to the North Block for Article IV Consultations. The team would wait for the gross domestic product (GDP) data for the second quarter before coming out with its report in January, a ministry official added.
The data is set to come on Friday.
In the first quarter the economy had crashed to a growth of a four-year low of 4.4 per cent. This was after India's economy delivered a decade bottom expansion of 5% in 2012-13. In the second quarter as well, analysts expected the economy to have grown by sub-5%. As already reported, the Fund expects India's economy to clock an 11-year low in yearly growth in 2013-14, of 4.25%.
"The government has given all aspects which go into growth. We gave our views," the official said.
He said the government has told the team about situation on the current account deficit (CAD), fiscal deficit, investments and savings.
If there is one thing which is giving the government, fighting the economy on various fronts, some comfort, it is CAD. CAD had widened to all-time high of 4.8% of GDP in 2012-13. In did not show any signs of abatement, standing at 4.9% in the first quarter of the current financial year. However, surging exports, calming oil prices and curbs on gold imports are all set to deliver far lower CAD in the current financial year.
In Article IV consultations, IMF economists visit a member-country to gather information and discuss with government and central bank officials, private investors, labour representatives, members of Parliament and civil society organisations. The mission then sends a report to the IMF's executive board. The board's views are summarised and provided to the country’s authorities. The previous IMF report under Article IV consultations on the Indian economy was in January this year. It blamed domestic factors as well for a slowing growth rate, even as policy makers here had largely blamed global factors.
