ADB predicts 7.4 percent growth for Indian economy this fiscal

Asian Development Bank (ADB) has said that Indian economy will grow 7(point)4 per cent this fiscal, and 7(point)6 per cent in the next fiscal. India had grown 7.1 per cent in the previous fiscal.

ADB Chief Economist Yasuyuki Sawada said that reforms like the Goods and Services Tax and the new bankruptcy law will make it easier to do business in India. On the impact of rupee appreciation on exports, he said, the appreciation cannot be considered in isolation, and the overall export performance of India so far seems quite positive.

The rupee has appreciated by over 5 per cent against the US dollar since January. Mr Sawada was talking to the media at Yokohama in Japan yesterday, a day before finance



ministers and central bank governors meet for the ADB's 50th annual meeting.

Mr Sawada said, emerging orientation in US and Europe for protectionism in trade is worrisome, but not enough to break the global economy. He said ADB stresses on more open trade and more free movement of capital, and it should play an important role to push an open trade and investment regime.

Mr Sawada cited the example of China, which is shifting from an export driven model to a more internal demand driven model. He said there is a trend in Asia that domestic consumption and investment play a much more important role than external demand. But this trend does not deny the importance of trade, he said.