International Monetary Fund chief Christine Lagarde on Wednesday said India’s Gross Domestic Product will grow by more than 7% in 2016 while China’s will grow at around 6%, Reuters reported. Lagarde further said that the Fund will lower its growth forecast for the United States because of setbacks to the country’s economy in the first half of the year.
The Funds managing director also warned against the use of trade restrictions and protectionist policies by countries, saying that the global economy’s recovery from the 2009 financial crisis was still fragile. “We continue to face the problem of global growth being too low for too long, benefiting too few,” she said. According to her, nations should instead adopt policies to retrain those displaced by automation processes as well as invest more in education, infrastructure and efficiency reforms to boost economic growth.
Lagarde’s remarks come ahead of the annual summit of the IMF and the World Bank in October. Discussions on global economic events and forces, including exchange rate fluctuations and the implications of Britain’s decision to exit the European Union, are expected to take place at the annual meeting of the global financial institutions.
The IMF will also release its World Economic Outlook, which provides an analysis of the current state of the global economy, next week. In July, it had cut its forecast for global growth by 0.1%, citing an increase in political and institutional uncertainty following the Brexit vote. However, the institution retained India’s growth projection for the next two years at 7.3% and 7.5%.
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