India likely to be less affected by global economic shocks: IMF

TIL Desk/Business/Washington-India’s economy is in a “fairly good shape” and it is likely to be less affected than other emerging economies if there is a further shock to the global economy, according to a senior official of the IMF.

“We’ve seen pretty tepid global growth rates in the recent past. If there’s any adverse shock to the global growth and thereby global demand, we think India will not be unaffected but will be less affected than other countries which rely on exports and trade far more than India does,” Paul A Cashin, Assistant Director in IMF’s Asia & Pacific Department, and mission chief of India, told.

“Until demonetisation there was very healthy consumption spending in India, which was basically propelling economic growth. India has an inward domestically demand-oriented economy, which is good when global growth factors are not exactly healthy,” he said. “That’s why we think India will be, I’m not going to say immune, but less affected than other emerging economies if there’s a further shock to the global economy, including a general global slowdown,” Cashin said.