India growth may slow down: IMF

The International Monetary Fund has projected a sharp deceleration in India’s growth momentum in the coming year amid falling economic output in advanced economies across the world.

The International Monetary Fund (IMF) has projected a sharp deceleration in India’s growth momentum in the coming year amid falling economic output in advanced economies across the world.

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The latest edition of IMF’s World Economic Outlook 2008 released on Thursday said India’s GDP is likely to slowdown to 6.3 per cent — 0.6 percentage points less than what it had projected last month — as the global credit crisis spreads far and wide.

But if India’s lower projections are a cause for concern, those of advanced economies — that are expected to fall by 0.3 per cent in 2009 — are scary.

The Outlook says the UK GDP is expected to contract by 1.5 per cent, the US by 0.7 per cent and Germany by 0.8 per cent.

India’s economy expanded 7.9 per cent in the three-months ending June 30 — the slowest since 2004 — in the backdrop of high inflation and sluggish industrial growth on the back of high borrowing costs.

As per IMF projections, India is likely to record an economic growth of 6.6 per cent during October-December as against 8.9 per cent in the corresponding period in 2007.

“The downward revisions to 2009 real GDP growth projections are somewhat larger in emerging economies, averaging 1 per cent,” WEO noted.