NDTV Exclusive: 3 Things IMF's Gita Gopinath Would Tell Government

New Delhi: IMF Chief Economist Gita Gopinath, in an exclusive interview to NDTV, says global economic recovery has been endangered by renewed restrictions in many countries -- including India -- over the rise of the Omicron variant. The IMF Chief Economist -- who met with Prime Minister Narendra Modi on Wednesday -- underlined three things she would tell the Centre on how to get back on track in the face of another potential Covid threat.

"First, to make sure you are doing your vaccinations on a war footing. 37 per cent of India's total population is fully-vaccinated -- in terms of the first dosage, it's much higher at around 60 per cent. What we see is around the world is that when vaccine cases come down, pressure comes off, people don't think about getting vaccinated. So getting over vaccine hesitancy through a much higher rate of vaccination is essential," Ms Gopinath said.

"It's not going to solve the problem. You're still going to get the infection, we've seen that in the U.K., even with higher rates of vaccination. But, everything points to the fact that even with Omicron, if you are vaccinated, you get some protection against severe disease and that's what we should be targeting," she added.

"The second area is recovery. There has been recovery after Delta (variant). There's been a rebound after opening but it's not done, it's not complete. There's a big gap between where India would have been in the absence of pandemic and where it is. So, there's still a need to keep the near term fiscal monetary policy accommodative," she told NDTV.

"But, at the same time, you also communicate how you are going to consolidate with the medium term. How would you bring the house in order over the medium term? Similarly, for monetary policy side, keeping a very close eye on inflation," Ms Gopinath, set to become the IMF's Deputy Managing Director, mentioned.

"And the last thing, make sure that there's sufficient spending on health, education. India has done well in terms of investments in physical and digital infrastructure but there's much more that's needed," she said.

She also stated that big announcements have been made on the climate change topic but "very ambitious" policies will be required to attain those targets.

Further, the IMF Chief Economist lauded the Centre for Air India privatisation and termed it a "very good step."