WORLD ECONOMIC OUTLOOK  REPORT- IMF

Q. What is the news?

Recently, the report World Economic Outlook of the International Monetary Fund (IMF) was released which has estimated that India’s Gross Domestic Product (GDP) will grow by 11.5% in the Financial Year (FY) 2021-22.

Q. What are the findings of the report in Indian context?

• FY 2020-21: For the current fiscal, the IMF had forecast a record 10.3% contraction.
• FY 2021-22: For the next fiscal, starting from April 1st, GDP growth projection is at 11.5%, 2.7% higher than the projection made in October, 2020.
  
  • Last October, the IMF had projected an 8.8% real GDP growth for India in FY 2021-22, highest globally.
• FY 2022-23: In FY 2022-23, the economy will likely grow 6.8%.

Q. What are the governments projection for 2020-21?

• The latest revision for the current fiscal is higher than the government’s first advance estimate of 7.7% and also the RBI’s estimate of 7.5%.

Q. What are the reason for Increase in the Estimates by IMF?

• India has taken very decisive action, very decisive steps to deal with the pandemic and to deal with the economic consequences of it.

Q. What are the global projections of the report? 

Other Economies with High percentage of Growth:

• China would grow 8.1% in 2021, followed by Spain (5.9%) and France (5.5 %).
• China, which was the only major country to register a growth rate of 2.3 % in 2020, will expand 5.6% in 2022.

Q. What are some other findings of report? 

• The report highlighted the pandemic-induced acceleration in inequality by reiterating that close to 90 million people are likely to fall below the extreme poverty threshold during 2020-21 as workers with less education, women, youth, those in contact-intensive sectors, and those informally employed suffer disproportionate livelihood and income losses.
• The pandemic is expected to reverse the progress made in poverty reduction across the past two decades.
• It can be noted that recently, the Inequality Virus Report, released by Oxfam International, has also found that the Covid pandemic deeply increased the existing inequalities in India and around the world.

Q. What about International Monetary Fund?

• The IMF was set up along with the World Bank after the Second World War to assist in the reconstruction of war-ravaged countries.
• Created in 1945, the IMF is governed by and accountable to the 189 countries that make up its near-global membership. India joined on December 27, 1945.