India to remain fastest growing major economy in world : World Bank

In its latest June 2024 report, Global Economic Prospects, the World Bank has revised the Indian Gross Domestic Product (GDP)  growth rate forecast for the financial year 2024-25 to 6.6 per cent.

In an earlier report issued in January 2024, the World Bank forecasted a growth rate of 6.4 per cent.

The World Bank also said that India will remain the fastest-growing major economy in the world in 2024-25.

 For 2025-26, the World Bank has raised the growth forecast to 6.7 per cent from the earlier forecast of 6.5  per cent.

According to the National Statistical Organisation (NSO) report, the Indian economy grew by 8.2 percent in 2023-24 and retained the status of the fastest-growing major economy in the world. 

In 2023-24, India's economy grew by 7.2 percent in 2022-23, and in 2021-22, the growth rate was  8.7 percent.

The Reserve Bank of India also recently raised the GDP growth rate forecast for 2024-25 to 7.2 per cent from 7 per cent earlier.

Reason for increasing India’s GDP growth forecast 

The World Bank has listed a number of factors for its upward revision in the Indian growth rate.

According to the report, the growth in the Indian industrial sector, especially manufacturing and construction, was better than expected. The service sector is also growing strongly, though the growth rate in the agricultural sector will slow down due to the monsoon.

Strong public investment in infrastructure and an increase in private capital investment have boosted demand in the economy, leading to higher private consumption.

The World Bank report also said that the GDP per capita growth rate in the Emerging Markets and Developing Economies (EMDEs) is expected to grow by an average of 3 per cent annually during 2024-26. Amongst the EMDEs, India is expected to register solid growth in per capita  GDP.

Growth Rate Forecast for Indian Economy in 2024-25/2025-26

Following are the forecasts of various global and Indian financial agencies regarding the growth of the Indian economy(as of 12 June 2024).

The World Bank is a multilateral development institution which was set up in July 1944 along with the International Monetary Fund.

The World Bank is a group of five international financial institutions. It releases a number of research reports. The important ones are :

• World Development Report 
• Global Economic Prospect 
• Global Financial Development Report
• Commodity Market Outlook
• International Debt Statistics

Headquarters:  Washington D.C, the United States of America

President: Ajay Banga 

Members: 189 countries.