India's Finance Minister Arun Jaitley has expressed strong reservations on the delay in implementation of the quota reform of the International Monetary Fund that aims to provide emerging economies more voting power with regard to the functioning of the multilateral body. In his lead intervention in the plenary session of the International Monetary and Finance Committee (IMFC) of the International Monetary Fund in Lima, Peru, the Finance Minister said, “The IMF would be constrained in meeting its obligations if the IMF Quota and governance reforms are not implemented.”
Stressing upon the Indian government's commitment towards fiscal consolidation, he pointed that key indicators such as current account deficit and inflation substantially lowered. He said that the inflation has dipped to a low of 3.7 per cent and the CAD stood at around 1.3 per cent of GDP, down from 4.8 per cent two years back. Confident about achieving higher GDP growth rate, he said, “The Indian economy grew by 7.3 per cent during the last year, significantly better than 6.9 per cent recorded in the previous year... This year India expects to do even better.”
Meanwhile, the IMF recommended that India to launch the next phase of economic reforms and improve its business climate for faster and more inclusive growth. “In India, while several policy actions have been taken recently, further steps in relaxing longstanding supply bottlenecks, especially in the energy, mining, and power sectors, as well as labour and product market reforms, and improving the business climate are crucial to achieving faster and more inclusive growth,” it said.
