India is looking at near close to double-digit growth this year and the country will be one of the fastest-growing economies, Finance Minister Nirmala Sitharaman has said. The minister also emphasized that she expects the economic growth next year to be in the range of 7.5-8.5 percent, which will be sustained for the next decade.
“As regards the growth of India, we are looking at near close to double-digit growth this year and this would be the highest in the world. And for the next year, on the basis of this year, (the) growth would definitely be somewhere in the range of eight (percent),” Sitharaman said here on Tuesday during a conversation at Harvard Kennedy School.
She noted that while the Ministry of Finance has not done any assessment as yet about the growth number, but the World Bank, IMF, and rating agencies have all come nearer to this kind of growth number for India. “So, the next year would also be somewhere in the range of eight to nine (percent), 7.5 to 8.5 (percent) would be the growth. And I expect that to be sustained for the next decade because of the rate at which expansion in core industries is happening, the rate at which services are growing, I don't see a reason for India to be any way lesser than” in the next coming decades, she said.
During the conversation with Professor at Harvard University Lawrence Summers during the talk organized by the Mossavar-Rahmani Center for Business and Government, Sitharaman, when asked about the state of the global economy, said: “I don't think you can have one picture for the entire globe. The emerging market economies are likely to recover speedily and are likely to have a growth trajectory, which will probably be even the title of engine for growth. They are the ones who are going to be pulling forward the global economy”.
“And in that, at least from the data which has been released yesterday and the week before, I can say that India's growth this year will be the highest in the world, of course, based on a lower base of last year, but that will continue into the next year. And even there, we will be one of the fastest-growing economies,” she noted.
She also pointed out that India itself is a huge market.
“Today, our demographic dividend is not a dividend without reason. It's a dividend, which has great purchasing power ability. The middle class in India has the money to buy things,” she said, adding that the people who are moving from other destinations to invest in India and to produce in India will have a captive market.
“The same demographic dividend also gives us another advantage - the youth population of India today is a skilled set of youngsters skilled in various different areas, most of them in STEM,” the minister noted. Sitharaman said India will attract investments and have the purchasing power to demand the best of things from whoever produces it.
India is even today best in agriculture. “The food security of many countries depends on imported food. Many in the Middle East depend on India for their basic food materials. We will be one of the largest exporters of food and food processed materials,” she added.