G20: World Bank’s Ajay Banga more optimistic about India now than in a long time

Banga took charge as the President of World Bank in early June.

World Bank President Ajay Banga is bullish about India, and said he is more optimistic about the economy's growth prospects now than he has been "in a long time".

Speaking on the sidelines of the third meeting of G20 Finance Ministers and Central Bank Governors in Gandhinagar on July 17, Banga said he is a "big fan" of India's digital payments infrastructure.

"I am more optimistic about India today as a whole than I have been for a long time," Banga told reporters.

The Indian economy is the world's fastest growing large economy, with the higher-than-expected GDP growth print of 6.1 percent for January-March taking the 2022-23 number to 7.2 percent. While some economists see growth slowing down sharply to under 6 percent in 2023-24 on account of weakening global growth prospects, the Indian government and the Reserve Bank of India (RBI) are bullish and see the economy expanding by 6.5 percent this year.

Also read: India can see China-like high-growth phase for a decade, says CEA Nageswaran

Banga, who took charge as the President of the World Bank in early June, was more circumspect about the global economy, commenting that it is in a "difficult place" .

"It has outperformed what everybody thought but it doesn't mean there won't be more challenges. The IMF (International Monetary Fund) forecasts, the World Bank forecasts are that the world will get a little challenging over the next year or so," he said.

However, he expressed hope, saying that "forecast is not equal to destiny".

"We can change destiny. That's what we should think of right now."

In April, the IMF had cut its growth forecast for the world economy for 2023 and 2024 by 10 basis points each to 2.8 percent and 3 percent, respectively.

"Tentative signs in early 2023 that the world economy could achieve a soft landing – with inflation coming down and growth steady – have receded amid stubbornly high inflation and recent financial sector turmoil," the IMF had said in its World Economic Outlook report, referring to the collapse of regional banks in the US and the takeover of Credit Suisse by UBS in Switzerland.

Meanwhile, the World Bank has estimated the global economy will grow by 2.1 percent in 2023.