India’s slowdown brief, GST to have positive impact

Goods and Services Tax (GST) will have ‘a hugely positive impact’ on the Indian economy and the slowdown observed in the first quarter of this fiscal is temporary, World Bank (WB) President Jim Yong Kim has said. The recent slowdown is an ‘aberration’ that will get corrected in the next few months and the GDP growth will stabilise during the year, he said.

“We’ve been watching carefully, as Prime Minister [Narendra] Modi has really worked on improving the business environment, and so, we think all of those efforts will pay off as well,” news agencies quoted Kim telling reporters during a conference call ahead of the annual meeting of the International Monetary Fund (IMF) and the World Bank in Washington.

Indian finance minister Arun Jaitley would be leading the Indian delegation to the annual meeting next week.
Praising the Indian prime minister’s ‘huge commitment’ to sanitation issues and improving opportunities, he said the ‘Swachh Bharat’ campaign is one of the ‘most effective programmes’ anywhere. The World Bank aims at bringing in the most effective intervention to India based on the political will and commitment demonstrated by the prime minister to improve human capital, he said.

India’s GDP grew 5.7 per cent on a year-on-year basis during the April-June period. The figure was 6.1 per cent during the previous quarter.

Concerned over a rise in protectionism, policy uncertainty, or a possible financial market turbulence, Kim said the global economy has started accelerating and trade is picking up after years of disappointing growth, but investment remains weak.

This year, the bank is producing a new report in a series on ‘The Changing Wealth of Nations’ and has added human capital to its wealth analysis for the first time, Kim added.