IMF praises India’s efforts in reviving economy after COVID-19 pandemic

The International Monetary Fund (IMF) chief Kristalina Georgiva has lauded India for taking decisive steps in dealing with the COVID-19 pandemic and economic impact in the country.

She encouraged Indian to continue with steps to revive the economy in 2021 and to accelerate the country’s economic transformation.

The IMF Managing Director during a global media roundtable on Thursday predicted a less bad outlook for India in the upcoming World Economic Update due to the steps taken by the country, reported PTI.

“When I called on everybody to stay tuned for January 26, that applies very much to India. You would see a picture in our update that is less bad. Why? Because the country actually has taken very decisive action, very decisive steps to deal with the pandemic and to deal with the economic consequences of it,” Georgieva said.

The International Monetary Fund is scheduled to release its World Economic Update on January 26.

Talking about India, the IMF chief said it was a very dramatic lockdown for a country as big as India with a population of 1.2 billion and people living in close clusters.

“Then India moved to more targeted restrictions and lockdowns. What we see is that that transition, combined with policy support, seems to have worked well. Why? Because if you look at mobility indicators, we are almost where we were before COVID in India, meaning that economic activities have been revitalised quite significantly,” she said.

“What the government has done on the monetary policy and the fiscal policy side is commendable. It is actually slightly above the average for emerging markets. Emerging markets on average have provided six per cent of the GDP. In India, this is slightly above that. Good for India is that there is still space to do more.. If you can do more, please do,” Georgieva said.