India's Chief economic adviser Arvind Subramanian expressed concern over growing protectionism in global markets and felt that India needs open markets to grow at 8-10%. Citing an example, he said, India witnessed fastest growth during the period when exports were highest. “I think, we in India have now a much bigger role in ensuring that world markets remain open... At the very least, any reversal of globalisation is something that we should be very, very anxious about because if we want 8-10% growth, I think we need open markets,” he said.
The biggest beneficiaries of the open market policy or globalisation has been middle-income countries and the continuation of this is in their interest, he said at an event. However, the idea of protectionism gained momentum recently after Donald Trump took over as the US president. Recently, the Trump administration indicated that it wanted to look again at trade agreements with countries where the US buys more than it sells, including China, Japan, South Korea and Germany. Besides, Britain has also started the process of exit from the European Union.
Subramanian said, India has done a lot on FDI and more would help in attracting investment. “We have done a lot on FDI and other areas, I think we need to do more,” he said. Speaking about ultra-loose monetary policy adopted by various advanced countries, the CEA said he was actually much less worried than the early indications about the pullout of the US.
