World Bank president Jim Kim remains optimistic about the Indian economy growing at 6 per cent in the next fiscal year, beginning April 2013, despite the current "disappointing" 5 per cent growth this year.
"India has made just an extraordinary contribution to the global economy -- its share in the global economy has almost doubled in the five years between 2005 and 2010. So, India, overall, is a fantastic success story," Mr Kim told reporters in his first visit to the country after taking over as the president of the World Bank Group in July last year.
The economy was likely to gather pace as exports increased, the World Bank president added. "The Indian economy like any other economy is subject to the global slowdown... as the export market starts doing better, we think India will do better as well."
India posted its second-highest ever monthly trade deficit of $20 billion in January as imports surged to record highs. However, a 4.25 per cent rise in exports in February from a year earlier helped reduce trade deficit to $14.9 billion.
The Indian economy grew at a worse-than-expected 4.5 per cent in the third quarter and is heading for a decade-low growth of 5 per cent in the current fiscal year ending March 31, 2013.
However, analysts think growth has bottomed out and the 'worst is over' for the Indian economy. According to global ratings agency Moody's, the December quarter was likely the bottom of the economic cycle and India is headed for better times. India is likely to growth at 6.2 per cent in 2013, the ratings agency has said.
"The biggest change... is that the government is now on a steady path of fiscal and regulatory reform and better governance. The so-called big bang of economic reforms announced since August has helped to lift corporate confidence and should translate into better spending and capital expenditures from mid-2013," Moody's said last week.
On the Union Budget 2013, which saw Finance Minister P Chidambaram promise to bring down fiscal deficit to 4.8 per cent of the GDP in the next fiscal year, Mr Kim said: "I was very impressed with all the things done by the minister and his team to ensure that there is that growth in the future."
With inputs from PTI
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