India to remain fastest-growing economy, to log 6.7 pc GDP growth in next 3 years — World Bank

NEW DELHI — Driven by strong domestic demand, surge in investment and robust services activity, India will remain the fastest growing economy in the world, clocking a steady growth of 6.7 per cent for the next three fiscal years, the World Bank has said.

In the ‘Global Economic Prospects’ report, the World Bank retained its growth forecast for India at 6.6 per cent for FY25.

It said that India will remain the fastest-growing of the world’s largest economies, although its pace of expansion is expected to moderate.

“After a high growth rate in FY 2023/24, steady growth of 6.7 per cent per year, on average, is projected for the three fiscal years beginning in FY 2024/25,” the global bank said.

For FY26 and FY27, the World Bank projected India’s economy to grow at 6.7 per cent and 6.8 per cent, respectively.

“Private consumption growth is expected to benefit from a recovery of agricultural production and declining inflation. Government consumption is projected to grow only slowly, in line with the government’s aim of reducing current expenditure relative to GDP,” the WB report mentioned.

The International Monetary Fund (IMF) had earlier raised India’s growth forecast for 2024-25 to 6.8 per cent from 6.5 per cent on the back of strong domestic demand and a rising working-age population.

The RBI last week raised India’s GDP growth forecast from 7 per cent to 7.2 per cent for the current financial year (2024-25), as it expects the economy to continue on a high growth trajectory.

RBI Governor Shaktikanta Das said the GDP growth in the first quarter of 2024-25 is likely to be at 7.3 per cent, 7.2 per cent in Q2, 7.3 per cent in Q3, and 7.2 per cent in the last quarter.

The Indian economy has clocked a robust GDP growth of 7.8 per cent in the January-March quarter while for the full financial year 2023-24, the growth rate works out to a stellar 8.2 per cent — up from 7 per cent in FY 2022-23.

The high growth rate has been driven by a strong performance of the manufacturing and mining sectors, according to the Ministry of Statistics.