IMF Raises India Forecast to 9.4 Percent

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Jul. 13 – The International Monetary Fund raised its 2010 economic forecast for India last Thursday from 8.8 percent to 9.4 percent on the basis of strong corporate profits and financing conditions.

“IMF is an independent body monitoring India. It is a positive signal. If there are similar signals and confirmation from other agencies (monitoring the Indian economy), it will give greater confidence to us about the government’s own assessment of the growth prospects for the year,” said T.C.A. Anant, India’s chief statistician.

Dr. Pronab Sen, principal adviser for the Planning Commission said, “It is not a surprise. It was on expected lines given that we had a strong GDP performance in January-March 2010 (Q1 for IMF’s calculation) and will also have good one in April-June (Q2 for IMF’s calculation) due to base effect.”

The multilateral agency also raised its global growth forecast for the year from 4 percent in April to 4.5 percent accounting for better performance for the January to June period. The IMF said it expects robust growth for developing and emerging economies and higher growth for developed economies.