AMN / WASHINGTON
Finance Minister Arun Jaitley has said that India carried out key structural reforms at the right time when the growth rate was high and he hoped that it would serve the country well in the days to come.
Talking to a group of Indian journalists in Washington, Jaitley said that some of the key reforms, including demonetisation and the GST, were carried out keeping in mind their long-term benefits to the country’s economy and as a result India’s growth rate is now headed for a higher trajectory.
He said, when the world was growing at two-and-a-half per cent, India was the fastest-growing major economy in the world. This was just the right time to bring about structural changes, he said.
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The Indian government has, however, received support from top leaders of the IMF and the World Bank who have called the slowness in recent Indian growth rate an aberration and a short-term one.
Jaitley said the positive responses and statements about the Indian economy by the world leaders had increased the confidence of India. There is a global appreciation of the fact that India has the capacity and courage to carry out structural reforms like demonetisation and GST,” he said.
Jaitley said the upgraded global growth projections should be a further help to India’s own growth rate.
Responding to a question on the next phase of reforms, Jaitley said the government would now focus on large-scale investment in the infrastructure sector and rural area. The government is working in that area,” he said.