In wake of the ongoing economic slowdown of the country, World Bank President, Jim Yong Kim, said that it is an “aberration” caused by temporary disruptions in preparation for the Goods and Service Tax (GST) and asserted that it will be corrected in the near future. Responding to questions on slowdown in India’s growth in the first quarter, Kim said that this is going to have a positive impact on the Indian economy.
“There has been a deceleration in the first quarter, but we think that’s mostly due to temporary disruptions in preparation for the, which by the way is going to have a hugely positive impact on the economy,” Kim said to the media during a conference ahead of the annual meeting of the International Monetary Fund and the World Bank here. “We think that the recent slowdown is an aberration which will correct in the coming months, and the GDP growth will stabilise during the year. We’ve been watching carefully, as Prime Minister Narendra Modi has really worked on improving the business environment, and so, we think all of those efforts will pay off as well,” he added.
He also praised the ‘commitment’ of PM Modi towards sanitation issues, and said that Swachh Bharat is one of the most effective programmes anywhere.
“I know that Prime Minister Modi himself personally is very committed to improving opportunities for all of India. But, India has a lot of challenges. We look at some of the educational outcomes, we’ve looked at some of the health outcomes, and India has room to improve, like most other countries,” he said.” Our job is to take the political will and commitment that Prime Minister Modi has clearly demonstrated and has communicated to everyone, and then bring to India the most effective intervention that will, as quickly as possible, improve the stock of human capital,” Kim said.
Union finance minister, Arun Jaitley, will lead a delegation to the annual meeting next week. India’s GDP grew 5.7 % during the April-June period. During the previous quarter (January-March) the GDP had grown by 6.1 %.
