New Delhi: The news of the International Monetary Fund's forecast that India is expected to register a growth rate of at least 7.5% has come as no surprise as the GDP of the country has been growing at the fastest rate for quite some time now. But as the opposition and other detractors of the government would like to project the growth as "modest", the news of several sectors about to register double-digit growth figures in the coming fiscal will leave the Narendra Modi dispensation vindicated.

 

Increased income of Indians

 

Employees of companies in India are likely to see a double-digit growth salary in 2019, a report said last Thursday. According to global consulting firm Korn Ferry, as a result of rapid economic growth, India continues to enjoy the highest overall salary increases and real-wage growth in Asia. Salaries in India are expected to increase 10% in 2019 as compared to 9% last year and inflation-adjusted real-wage hikes are likely to rise to 5% from 4.7% in 2018.

India's per capita national income is set to grow at 11.1% in the financial year 2018-19, fastest in last five years, according to advanced GDP estimates released by the government on Monday.  

 

Buoyant retail

 

Target, Rakuten and Lowe-like international retail brands have registered double-digit growth rates in 2018. Peter Bendor-Samuel, CEO of IT consultancy Everest Research, attributes this growth to the digital transformation of India.

More people insured

Global rating agency Moody’s on Tuesday said the insurance sector in India will ride on robust GDP growth and easing regulations to register a strog growth. Projecting real GDP growth at 7.4% and 7.3% in 2018-19 and 2019-20 respectively, Moody’s Investor Service in a report said that, the non-life segment of insurance will see double-digit growth over the next three to four years.

The International Monetary Fund's (IMF) World Economic Outlook Update on Monday forecasted that India's economy is expected to grow by 7.5% in the 2019-20 fiscal year, leaving behind China, which is estimated to grow by 6.2% in these two years, by over one percentage point.

The IMF saying that India would remain the fastest growing major economies of the world, attributed the pick up to the lower oil prices and a slower pace of monetary tightening.

Despite fiscal stimulus that offsets some of the impact of higher US tariffs, China's economy will slow down due to the combined influence of needed financial regulatory tightening and trade tensions with the US, the IMF said in its latest report.

Growth in emerging and developing Asia will dip from 6.5% in 2018 to 6.3%  in 2019 and 6.4%  in 2020, it said.

China which grew at 6.9% in 2017, as compared to 6.7%  by India, had a growth rate of 6.6%  in 2018. In the next two years 2019 and 2020 it is projected to grow at 6.2% each, the IMF said.

The latest IMF projections remains unchanged from its previous World Economic Outlook projections.

While, the Chinese growth rate has been on a downward slope, according to IMF, India has experienced an upward trajectory in these years.

The IMF said India's growth rate in 2018 was 7.3%.

It has been projected to grow at 7.5% in 2019, which is a marginal 0.1% above its previous projection. In 2020, India is projected to grow at 7.7%.

The IMF report comes a day after PwC's Global Economy Watch said that India is likely to surpass the United Kingdom in the world's largest economy rankings in 2019.

"India and France are likely to surpass the UK in the world's largest economy rankings in 2019, knocking it from fifth to seventh place in the global table," the report said.

"India should return to a healthy growth rate of 7.6% in 2019-20, if there are no major headwinds in the global economy such as enhanced trade tensions or supply side shocks in oil.

"The growth will be supported through further realisation of efficiency gains from the newly adopted Goods and Services Tax and policy impetus expected in the first year of a new government," said Ranen Banerjee, Partner and Leader Public Finance and Economics, PwC India.

With inputs from PTI