IMF upgrades India's growth forecast to 12.5% in 2021 backed by recovery and vaccination drive

The International Monetary Fund (IMF) has upgraded its growth projection for India to 12.5 per cent for Financial Year 2021-22. In its latest World Economic Outlook report, the IMF has pegged India's GDP to grow 1 per cent higher than its previous report published in January this year.

The Washington-based International Financial Institution has projected a contraction of 8 per cent in the growth in the last fiscal while it has forecasted a growth of 6.9 per cent in the next financial year beginning in 2022. IMF has also said that inflation will taper down to 4.9 per cent in the current financial year.

The rollout of COVID-19 vaccines and vast sums of government aid will accelerate global economic growth to a record high this year in a powerful rebound from the pandemic recession, the International Monetary Fund said in its latest forecast.

The 190-country lending agency said yesterday that it expects the world economy to expand 6 per cent in 2021, up from the 5.5 per cent it had forecast in January. It would be the fastest expansion for the global economy in IMF records dating back to 1980.

The agency's economists now estimate that the global economy shrank 3.3 per cent in 2020 after the devastating recession that followed the coronavirus' eruption across the world early last spring. That is the worst annual figure in the IMF's database, though not as severe as the 3.5 per cent drop it had estimated three months ago.