India is still the world's largest growing economy, said a senior IMF official, adding that macroeconomic fundamentals were good.
"India is expected to remain the largest growing economy in the world. We project growth at seven per cent in FY24-25, supported by recovery in rural consumption, as there have been favourable harvests. Inflation is expected to decline to 4.4 per cent in FY24-25, despite some volatility as food prices normalize," Krishna Srinivasan, Director for the IMF Asia Pacific Department, said in a PTI interview on Tuesday.
On other fundamentals, he said, "despite elections, the fiscal consolidation remains on track. Reserve position is pretty good. Macro fundamentals generally speaking for India are good."
He further said that the country's reform priorities post-elections need to be in three areas.
"One is, there's an issue about creating jobs in India and so on. In that context, I think implementing the labour codes, which were approved in 2019-2020, are important because they will allow the labour markets to be flexible while giving social protection to workers," he said.
"The other thing is, if you want to be competitive, you also have to remove some of the trade restrictions you have right now. Because in India what's happening is, you know, when you liberalise trade, you allow the productive firms to survive. There's greater competitiveness and that by itself can, you know, create jobs. I think it's important that there's more trade restrictions removed," he said.
"And finally, I would say continue with the reforms on, you know, beefing up the infrastructure, be it physical infrastructure or digital infrastructure, and this is a key achievement, and it continues with that. But going beyond that, I would say you have to focus on agriculture and land reforms. You have to think in terms of strengthening education and skilling," he said.
Emphasising the need for investment in skilling of workforce, Srinivasan said "in an economy which can generate a lot more jobs in the services sector, having the right kind of skills is important. So, investing in education, skilling the labour forces is very important."
Another reform would be strengthening a social safety net. Finally, I would say that talking to people you still have a lot of red tape and so on. Improving the business environment will be important aspects. These are some of the reforms which I think I would prioritise, Srinivasan said answering one question.
Sharing some examples of red tape in India, he said that some investors feel that entering into the Indian market, setting up an investment some way, getting a tract of land for big investments can be a problem. Some also mentioned that if you want to shut down and you want to exit that could also be a problem.
Srinivasan said the low productivity agriculture sector is a recent direction of county workers, pointing out that the trend has emerged because "the kind of jobs which are being generated are not the best of jobs."
He expressed concern over the subdued female participation in the country's labor force and on the prevailing youth unemployment.
"There are plenty of numbers floating around, but we all agree that participation in the labour force for women is on the low side, and unemployment among the youth is very high. So given that, there has to be emphasis on improvement in the environment for creating jobs," he said.
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