India can achieve more than 8% growth rate in a sustained manner if it takes steps to revive investments and make exports competitive, said Asian Development Bank Economist Abhijit Sen Gupta.
Efforts will also have to be made to streamline agriculture marketing and improve supply chain. This is the area where there is scope for more reforms. “Right now, the investment and exports drivers are really not firing... Once those two engines fire up India can sustainably grow at 8%,” he said.
In its Asian Development Outlook, 2018, the ADB said it expects India’s growth to pick up to 7.3% in current fiscal and accelerate to 7.6% in the next financial year.
‘Marginal player’
Referring to exports, he said India was still a “marginal player” in global trade and there was a lot of potential to increase exports. As Chinese exports are becoming expensive because of rising wages, India can reap benefits by improving competitiveness. “We need to improve our Ease of Doing Business and state of infra to benefit from trade and be better integrated into the value chain,” Mr. Sen Gupta, economist at the ADB India Mission, said.
On whether India can achieve double digit growth, he said: “it is not unfeasible. But, I don’t know if you can do that over a longer term period given the state of infrastructure and regulatory policies. Lot more reforms would probably be needed for that.” On investments, he said credit to infrastructure and industry is picking up, which is a positive sign.
