The managing director of the International Monetary Fund (IMF), Kristalina Georgieva, hailed the Union Budget presented by Nirmala Sitharaman in a virtual round table with a group of reporters on Thursday, 3 February.
"The Union Budget presented by Finance Minister Nirmala Sitharaman is a very 'thoughtful' policy agenda for India and puts a great deal of emphasis on innovation in research and development on human capital investment and digitalisation," she said.
The Union Budget was announced by the Finance Minister on Tuesday, 1 February, entailing an increase in the capital expenditure up to Rs 7.5 lakh crore, and a proposal to launch a digital currency under the government's ambit. It also extended the time given to the manufacturing firms to set up their units.
"We have been projecting a quite robust growth for India. Yes, there is a small downgrade versus our previous projection from 9.5 percent to 9 percent for 2022. But then we also have a small upgrade for 2023, because we think that we will see a stable growth not very different from (those projected by) the (Union) Minister of Finance,” Georgieva remarked at the round table.
The managing director added that "the International Monetary Fund (IMF) sees this being conditioned on a number of factors, including that in the COVID-19 pandemic they continue to function better. Should the pandemic continue to be around, the tightening of financial conditions would be done with clear forward guidance and in a prudent manner, not creating any more significant shock".
(With inputs from PTI.)
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