India, China to drive global growth: IMF

International Monetary Fund (IMF) is expecting India and China to drive the world economic growth with near-double digit growth in the current financial year.

"The global expansion is not powered by US consumption alone. Major emerging markets like China and India will grow at close to or above double digit rates thereby increasing their contributions to global growth," Rodrigo de Rato, managing director, IMF said while speaking at the 3rd International Derivatives and Financial Market Conference in Brazil.

Rato said he expects the global economy to continue performing well even in the face of recent financial market turbulence. "Several of the major emerging markets have strong economic fundamentals including current account surpluses and lower debt levels. More flexible exchange systems and the ability to issue debt in local currency have minimised two sources of vulnerability compared with previous episodes of financial market strains," he added.

IMF has projected the world economy to grow at about 5% in 2007 and 2008.