INDIA: In an ongoing annual meeting of the World Bank and the International Monetary Fund (IMF), India’s Finance Minister Nirmala Sitharaman highlighted the issues of decline in India’s foreign exchange reserves.
The Finance Minister Nirmala Sitharaman said, “India’s foreign exchange reserves at $537.5 billion as of September 23, 2022, compare favourably with most peer economies. Two-thirds of the decline in reserves is due to valuation changes arising from an appreciating U.S. dollar and higher U.S. bond yields.”
Amidst all the economic turbulence and instabilities, Nirmala Sitharaman apprised India of being one of the very few standout performers. In times of an imminent recession in the global economy, India is gallantly holding a good position.
As per shared reports, India’s National Statistical Organisation (NSO) has now placed the Gross domestic product (GDP) growth for Q1 during the current financial year 2022-23 at 13.5 percent on an end-to-end yearly basis, which is the highest among the large economies.
India has revived a milestone in the field of balancing the economic growth. Nirmala Sitharaman said that the government expenditure is now shifted towards capital aside revenue, which will further help in strengthening the foundations for medium-term growth. As per data analysis, India mounted 13.5 percent in GDP growth in Q1, helping India cross the pre-pandemic level by 3.8 percent.
The Finance Minister further added, “So, we see consumer spending picking up at 26 percent in Q1. This is made possible by increasing consumer trust and reviving contact-intensive activities. However, there is still room for improvement because the key trade, hotel, and restaurant GVA have yet to exceed the pre-pandemic level.”
Taking more about the rapid growth of industries, both PSUs and private sectors, she said, ”Gross fixed capital formation (GFCF) growth jumped to 20 percent in Q1, highly impacted by governments and public sector undertakings (PSUs) in the transport besides the housing, construction, steel, pharma and IT private sectors.”
